When many people think of March they think of high school basketball playoffs and the college “Big Dance.” There’s a madness in all of that, but March is also a time that can drive us mad as we yearn for spring, but winter doesn’t want to end its long stay.
March came in like a lamb this year. By the time you read this, we’ll know if the lion is getting ready to make an appearance as March makes an exit. After the beautiful spring weather we had today, I’m ready to put away my skis, snowshoes, and snowblower and start tuning up the bike and lawnmower.
March is that transitional month when we’ve got to be ready for anything. March is what guys referred to as a tease in the dating game. Just when you were getting your hopes up and you thought spring was just around the corner, you got a cold blast of winter to cool you off again. That’s March.
We just endured a week of heavy fog and rain. The sun was nowhere to be found. It was case weather without any tobacco to take down. That kind of weather does have a way of beating your spirit down after a while. I can understand how some people suffer from depression when sunshine takes an extended vacation.
That’s March; cool, drab, and dirty… the month of transition. As the snow retreats into the safety of the wooded, northern slopes, it exposes what the snow had hidden from our sight for the past several months. As I was out walking today, the ditches were filled with more than running water. Pop cans, beer cans and bottles, water bottles, crumpled up McDonald’s bags and cups, and animal carcasses in various stages of decomposition. The animals I can understand. They didn’t look both ways before crossing the road and it was lights out. All the discarded cans, bottles, and paper bags is another story. It’s maddening. Littering is just lazy and thoughtless behavior on the part of a few people, but it sure makes a mess.
Winter throws a blanket of snow over all the accumulated junk around the countryside that becomes exposed like an unmade bed with the arrival of March. Our lawn is littered with sticks, clumps of grass, and small rocks. They seem to arrive each spring, like a rabbit out of an empty hat. They weren’t there in the fall.
Another thing the melting snow exposed on our lawn was a network of tunnels in the dried grass, created by little rodents, most likely voles and mice. It was certainly a safe and comfortable place for them under the snow in their little shelters, out of the wind and cold. Now that March has arrived, their tunnel systems stand exposed and unused. I wonder where they’re living now?
The birds are starting to return. I saw and heard my first flock of geese heading north. That’s always a welcome sight. A huge flock of Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds also visited our back yard this week. There were several hundred birds in it and they all rose together, like a black cloud, each time something frightened them. I’ve yet to spot my first Robin of the spring, but other people say they’ve seen them. We always have Mourning Doves in the winter, but during the last week, up to fourteen have been feeding on the ground under our feeder at one time.
The melting snow has created a small stream in the little valley behind our house and filled the pond. Now I’ll keep track of how long it is before the pond is empty again. It held water all year round before, but now it seems to disappear into the ground. I suspect our pond has turned into a sinkhole. The area around here is cratered with sinkholes. That concerns me when it comes to manure runoff that could get down into our water table.
Seeing the water running, brought back memories of my younger days when playing in the water from melting snow was a March ritual. We made channels through the snow and mud so the water could run freely. We also got very wet and muddy, but never seemed to mind back then. What strange force attracts young kids and dogs to puddles of water and makes them stomp through them? It must be part of the March madness.
Another thing that’s a bit maddening in March is getting adjusted to Daylight Savings Time and trying to remember how to change all the clocks. I especially have trouble with my wristwatch. I lost the directions a long time ago. Another thing, how did we end up with so many clocks? There should be no excuse for anyone to ever be late to an appointment. When Ole first heard about Daylight Savings time he said, “Only a government official would believe you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket!” I think Ole’s right on that one. Ya, it’s March madness all right.
March, those sunny, water running, muddy, bird’s singing, uplifting, short sleeve, sixty-degree temperature days, followed by foggy, rainy, depressing, sleet-filled, wet, slushy, snowy days when the winter jackets come out of the closet again. It’s madness… it’s March.
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