April Fools

Here in Potter county, March does not pay any attention to the old adage “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” The month went out like just like came in – with days of howling wind and pelting rain. Now April is here and is supposed to bring us showers that result in to May flowers, but here in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania, April has started out with a dismal return to winter. I was expecting some such dirty trick of nature. After a relatively mild winter, I knew we’d get clobbered in the spring. I was hoping the forecast was an April Fools joke. The snow came last night. When we woke up this morning it was 16° with a wind chill of 0°and the spring flowers were buried under four inches of snow.

The world this morning.

The spring flowers were progressing nicely – until now. The crocuses are done, but the squill and glory-of-the-snow are in bloom and the first of the daffodils have opened. The buds on the forsythia bushes are about to pop. So many bushes and trees have green and swollen buds now –  roses, lilacs, apples, magnolias. All of it is under a layer of snow right now. It’s disheartening to see it, but I know this snow won’t last long.

Glory-of-the-snow (chionodoxa).

Squill.

The first daffodil.

During the week, when the weather was good, we made progress in the yard and garden. We had our first fire of the year and burned the Christmas tree and all the winter-fallen twigs and branches. I cleaned up the asparagus bed in anticipation of seeing the first of those delectable green spears poking up from the ground. I’m planting another two rows of asparagus this spring. Josiah helped me get the ground ready where the new rows will be. I love asparagus. My onion starts and seed potatoes arrived in the mail during the week. They’ll have to wait a while before they can be planted.

Our first fire of the year.

Josiah the monkey.

Friday was April Fools Day. I’ve never embraced April Fools. I’m not overly fond of practical jokes. Josiah, however, had been looking forward to the day for quite some time. He had a joke he could hardly wait to play on his friends. He often makes treats and takes them to school to share with the group of friends he sits with at lunch. Two weeks ago he made cake balls and his friends loved them. On Thursday he made cake balls again. He also made a batch of chocolate covered cotton balls cleverly disguised as cake balls and plated them together. He took them to school on April Fools Day and shared them with his unsuspecting friends. It was luck of the draw whether they got a mouthful of cake or cotton. His joke was a hit. The whole school was talking about it. What a funny boy.

Josiah making his April Fools cake balls.

This is General Conference weekend – a time I look forward to twice a year. We watched all the Saturday session at our house. We will watch today’s session over at the Shillig’s house and then have dinner. The messages delivered at Conference have been stirring, comforting, and timely. I always come away from General Conference with a resolve to try harder to do better. With the chaos and turmoil in the word it is good to hear prophets, seers, and revelators put things in proper perspective and preach the peaceable things of the kingdom.

Poor little birds huddled in the forsythia bushes.

The forecast says we’ll get more snow tonight. It looks like the next few days ahead will be cold. I take sad comfort in knowing that out there under the snow there are flowers waiting for the snow to melt. We turned our gas furnace off weeks ago and were tempted to relight it this weekend, but we decided to rely on our wood stove to keep us warm. Weeks ago I put my winter coat away and got out my light spring jacket. I refuse to go back. I’d rather shiver in defiance, than resubmit to winter.

The beaver pond this morning.

Sunday morning.

This week more of my garden orders should be arriving – strawberry plants, asparagus roots, pawpaw trees, and raspberry plants. I’m hoping I won’t have to shovel snow away to plant them. This week I will also start more seeds in trays in the upstairs bay window. All the time I will be shaking my fist at winter. It’s April now, time for winter to go away.

This morning.