Spring Is Here! Well, Not Quite Yet…

Where I live, the weather in March is very unpredictable – like every other month, I guess – and can be lovely or really miserable.  The good news is that the ground will have started thawing so any snow that we get hopefully won’t last on the sidewalks or streets for too long.

This year towards the end of February I suddenly thought “Spring is almost here!  We’ve survived the winter!” It’s not really.  And we haven’t quite yet.  While in some places “early spring” flowers have already come and gone, here they haven’t even started growing yet.  Except maybe the tulips.  Ours are beside the house facing south, so they are warmer than the rest of the yard.  The poor things actually started coming up several weeks ago, and by the middle of February the leaves were at least an inch tall.  That is MUCH too early, but some of the winter was relatively mild so they thought it was spring and responded appropriately.  Of course, after they started to come up we had about a week of colder than -30° Celsius temperatures.  They seem to still be with us, but we’ll see what happens.  They’re tough little things.

For some reason, as soon as we clean the Christmas things up I want to start putting spring decorations out.  And then I realize that I can’t because, well, it isn’t spring yet.  (I guess I could, but it doesn’t seem quite right.)  That in between time is so drab.  It might be white outside from the snow, but it also might just be brown because everything is dead.  The grass is dead, the trees have no leaves…  Everything is resting until it’s time to come out again.  But I don’t want to wait.  I don’t want to look outside and see brown.  I want to see life.  I want to see hope.  But here, the in between time lasts 3 or 4 months.

So, what to do in the meantime?  Last year I started many, many plants from seed – probably earlier than I should have, which meant there was a whole lot of life growing in my home office for several months.  Last week, forgetting the excessive planting of last year, while we were at the store I looked at seeds.  They didn’t have what I was actually looking for, so I looked to see what else might be calling me.  I needed some joy, some life, and thought this would be a good way to get it.  I got home, looked at the package for the planting instructions, and saw that you can start them in the house 6-8 weeks before the last frost.  Great!  Until I looked at the calendar.  8 weeks before the last frost isn’t until the end of March.  Hmmm… That doesn’t help me now.  Again, what to do?

A few days later was supposed to be a nice day in a week of not so great weather, so I decided to go to the zoo.  The zoo in the winter can be nice.  Some of the animals are more active, and there are fewer people.  In the interest of fewer people, I like to go first thing in the morning.  I got everything together the night before, got up in the morning, checked the weather again so I could dress appropriately, only to find that it was not going to be quite as nice as what was forecast the night before.  Then I checked again a bit later – and I do mean only a bit later – and now it said there was a small chance of rain and/or snow.  Sigh.  It just seemed like I wasn’t supposed to go.  But I went anyway.

When I got there, it was cold.  Freezing fog and some wind.  I thought the animals would be up and around to keep warm, but they, like the grass and trees, were resting.  Even the ones inside seemed to be resting.  Not the best start.  And not the best zoo day.  After a while, the sun came out and the fog started to burn off.  I wouldn’t say it ever really got warm while I was there, but it was okay.  And there were some really sweet moments.

The camels were chilling out – see what I did there? – under their shelter.  I know someone who thinks they are ugly, but I love them.  They seem so relaxed all the time – so Zen – and as my husband pointed out, some of the best zoo photos I get are of the camels.  They just seem to have such personality.

 

Even the white handed gibbons – who are inside – were unusually quiet.  One brother looked so serious, checking things out, while the other was just hanging around.

Then I went to see the snow leopards.  There are two, and I really expected that they would be up and around.  I looked in their usual spots, but instead I found one, curled up in a perfect ball, in the very front corner of the enclosure, sleeping.  It was beautiful to watch.  I was so close I could see this beautiful animal breathing.  What an amazing opportunity!

The red pandas are always fun – they’re really like ferocious teddy bears – and by the time I got to them, they were up and having a great time.

Eventually, it was time to go.  I headed back up towards the entrance, saw a group of people gathered and remembered that it was time for the “Penguin Walk”.  Every day for several months in the winter when the weather conditions are just right, the king penguins go for a guided and well monitored walk.  People can watch from a safe distance in designated areas along their route.  I had never seen it before.  Where I was coming up to was not exactly part of the designated area, but it was blocked off, so I knew it would be safe for the penguins.  They just happened to be coming up to where I was about to be, so I thought I would stop to see them along with the group of people who probably also just happened to be there at the right time.  And it was wonderful.

So, while it wasn’t the perfect zoo day, in the end it was really lovely.  I got outside for a few hours, and got to see some really cool things.  The life that I got to see that day will sustain me for a while, and hopefully I will be able to go again soon.  In the meantime, I will probably plant just a few of those seeds inside.  It is too early, so in the end they may not do well, but it will keep my itchy gardening fingers busy and give me some of that life I need to see while everything is resting outside.

And I don’t care what anyone says – Spring is on its way!