Days of Dandelions

 

Spring is here, and soon the grass and lawnmowers. Do people still strive for the perfect lawn, to walk on a carpet of grass--lush and green, with no unwanted weeds like clover or dandelions?

 The grass thrives in cool and damp conditions, like the gardens of the great mansions of England.   Maybe there is still an envy of the aristocracy in striving for the perfect lawn. To have enough space to grow nothing but grass with ornamental borders.  

Not like a crowded  cottage garden, where what  available space there is is used for growing lettuce and beans and eggplants,  tomatoes and peppers,  and lots of flowers, too.  

And what of the so-called weeds?  

Clover is a soft and resilient ground cover.  It also enriches the soil.

Dandelions have many uses.  Young leaves are edible.  The root is medicinal.  You can make a healing salve with dandelions. You can make dandelion tea, and dandelion wine.  

Rabbits eat the stems like spaghetti.

And bees love the flowers. Imagine, dandelion honey!

Oh yes, children love dandelions, too. They look like something a child would draw, in chalk on a sidewalk,  or a yellow crayon on paper, a round yellow flower like the sun.

April is National Poetry Month

 

 

 

April  may be the most poetic month---alive again, the earth in bloom---flowers and new green leaves.  Buds on the lilacs,  and today, the magnolias are blooming!

And how many poets have been inspired to write about April and Spring?

Wordsworth and the daffodils--

and ee cummings--in just spring---

Chaucer's  opening of Canterbury Tales --When that April with showers sweet with fruit  (modern English translation)

and moody modern Mr. Eliot--April is the cruelest month...

Simon and Garfunkel  sang  "April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain..."

 There are Japanese poets who write about the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms.  There are  French poets writing about rain...

 And Shakespeare--"thou art thy mothers glass, and she in thee beholds the lovely April of her prime" 

 And William Carlos Williams---the alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of leaves...

April--love and spring  

when everything is new again. 

March Madness and April Fools

 

 

 When I talk about March Madness,  I don't mean college basketball or Donald Trump indictments. When I talk about April Fools I don't mean road construction, potholes or guys wearing shorts in  breezy 45 degrees.  I'm talking about the weather.

I'm talking about Severe Weather Season and 70 mile an hour winds, power outages and tornado warnings. 

I'm talking about Friday March 31, when the Chicago area was under a tornado watch until 10:00 PM.       The watch was lifted at 8:30 PM.

The chance for severe weather stretched from Arkansas and Missouri to Indiana and Ohio.  The Storm Prediction Center was not joking that there was a chance of particularly dangerous conditions. 

Friday morning was mild and calm, temps in the mid-60's.  Enjoy it while it lasts, said my neighbor,  walking his dog in the alley. 

I packed my scram bag, just in case. This includes--flashlight, batteries, a jacket, important papers, checkbook,  cash,  a portable radio, and an extra black sweater. I do not have a mobile phone. I do have a phone jack in the basement for the landline and an outlet to plug in the battery for the laptop. 

What's in your scram bag?  Do you have multiple ways to receive weather updates?  Have a safety plan.

 In the evening, I watched weather updates on WGN-TV.  The whole weather team was there.  Tom Skilling is great! He is so calm, yet excited about squall lines. 

Yes, there were multiple tornadoes! People were killed.  Little Rock, Arkansas was impacted. A roof was blown off the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Illinois. There were tornadoes in Iowa and Indiana.   You can read the Accu-Weather  reports  here. 

Saturday, April 1  was brisk and cooler. There was not much damage here in south Oak Park.  It was a Saturday, and there were clementines at the Carnival Grocery.  Pigeons were dancing on the ledges of the Bank. Life was beautiful, miraculous and ordinary. 

Rain, Snow, Sun, Green

 

 

Mid-March, and the morning 3/4 moon in the budding branches.  Spring forward! More light in the evenings.

Meanwhile,  there is snow and flooding in California. A Nor'easter in the northeast. Here, by the shores of Lake Michigan, where they dyed the Chicago river green for the St. Patrick's Day Parade, there are clouds and blue sky,   and snow that melts in the afternoon.

The ground is soft, already the smell of mud,  already buds on the branches, already the first brave spring flowers.

 I wonder, is St. Patrick's Day really a celebration of returning green?

This year, the vivid greens are a welcome sight--maybe because we haven't had so much snow this year, and mostly overcast days. This winter has been more grays and browns, not so much clear blue sky and bright sun on snow.  We long for colors and light.

But Spring is coming. The March equinox is on March 20.  Amid all the uncertainty of this world, plagues and wars, politics, and bills and taxes, Spring is coming, sure as sunrise and the changing moon.

The First Full Moon of Spring

 

 It's been kind of undecided around here lately. Sun in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, or clouds in the morning, sun in the afternoon. Some people wearing shorts, others in winter parkas. Some with combinations of both!  And while astronomical spring begins on March 20,  meteorological spring began on March 1. 

 And now, the  nights of March 6 and 7 bring the March full moon.  It could be the last full moon of astronomical winter, or the first full moon of meteorological spring.   

It is also known as the Worm Moon, and it has other  names---Sugar Moon, Crows Come Back Moon, and the Lenten Moon,  names evocative of spring.

The Old Farmer's Almanac has more information about the names of the March Moon. You can read more here. 

Yes, the Worm Moon is a good name.   Now is the soft ground, the smell of mud and the robins returning.

We have been so fortunate here. The snowstorm of a few days ago missed us. The worst of the snow/rain mix was east and south, a snow globe in Valparaiso!  And tornadoes in Indiana and Ohio.

There was so much uncertainty about the storm---where, when, how much snow. So much depends on the storm track, the surface temperature and the snow bands.  

Was this the last storm of winter?

The robins are back, and the sparrows who are with us all winter are chirping from the rooftops.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the moon will be full,  rising over the trees with fat buds on the branches. 

Spring in Chicago

 

This is Chicago, so winter can linger here. Sleet and snow are still possible tomorrow, or next week, and even  in March and April. 

But already,  there are early signs of spring---

buds on the branches of the hickory tree!

crocuses coming up in the yards!

geese in a line flying north!

The Chicago Auto Show, paczkis for Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday, potted tulips at Walgreens. 

And amid news of basketball and hockey, there's first reports of Spring Training baseball.  

Pitchers and Catchers Report!  Those four words in the gray days of winter--you can almost smell the green grass, feel the warm sun and blue sky---everything is new again...

This is spring in Chicago---buds on the branches, baseball on the radio.

The Last Full Moon of Winter

 

 Midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox now.  We have gained more than an hour of daylight since the winter solstice.  

Sun on melting snow, today, and buds on the bare branches.   We are so ready for signs of spring.
Stores are stocked with cut flowers and potted tulips, bright-colored orchids for Valentines Day.  

If the night sky is clear, you might be able to see the green comet--- a brighter sight in February than in January.

And the full moon rising now is like a beacon in the winter sky. It is the last full moon of meteorological winter. It has many names--the Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Bone Moon. These would be fitting names for the February moon.  There would be snow, maybe lots  of snow.  Food would be scarce at this time.  

Native tribes also had other names for this last full moon of winter.  According to the Old Farmers' Almanac---

"Names for this month’s Moon have historically had a connection to animals. The Cree traditionally called this the Bald Eagle Moon or Eagle Moon. The Ojibwe Bear Moon and Tlingit Black Bear Moon refer to the time when bear cubs are born. The Dakota also call this the Raccoon Moon, certain Algonquin peoples named it the Groundhog Moon, and the Haida named it Goose Moon."

 

These are the animals of winter. Imagine a sunny day in February, eagles and geese in the blue sky. But they are also signs of changing season,  groundhogs  and raccoons breaking hibernation, and bear cubs born for the spring.