A Little Madness in the Spring
by Emily Dickinson
A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown—
Who ponders this tremendous scene—
This whole Experiment of Green—
As if it were his own!
Spring is finally taking hold. It’s May now, the first month in the trio of months that make up my favorite time of year. May, June, and July are the time of long days, warmth, light, and lushness. During May my garden will finally begin to look as I imagined it back in the cold dark dreaming days. May is when it all begins to gain strength. The trees are leafing out. The lawn is green and full of dandelions and violets again and in need of regular mowing. The early ephemeral spring flowers, as much as I love them, are gone. The late spring flowers – tulips, muscari, primroses, and late narcissus are blooming. Soon there will be apple blossoms and lily-of-the-valley and poppies. There will be lettuce and rhubarb and fresh peas. The green world is wide awake from its winter’s sleep and it invigorates me.
by Emily Dickinson
A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown—
Who ponders this tremendous scene—
This whole Experiment of Green—
As if it were his own!
Spring is finally taking hold. It’s May now, the first month in the trio of months that make up my favorite time of year. May, June, and July are the time of long days, warmth, light, and lushness. During May my garden will finally begin to look as I imagined it back in the cold dark dreaming days. May is when it all begins to gain strength. The trees are leafing out. The lawn is green and full of dandelions and violets again and in need of regular mowing. The early ephemeral spring flowers, as much as I love them, are gone. The late spring flowers – tulips, muscari, primroses, and late narcissus are blooming. Soon there will be apple blossoms and lily-of-the-valley and poppies. There will be lettuce and rhubarb and fresh peas. The green world is wide awake from its winter’s sleep and it invigorates me.
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| Late spring flowers. |
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| Violets in the lawn. |
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| Tulips. |
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| Primroses. |
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| Muscari |
On Wednesday the weather was good, but we knew rain was coming and that it would stay for a few days, so Miriam, Hannah, and I took a walk up to the hollow and through the woods. It was the first time we’d been to the woods in a long time. We went hoping to see some spring flowers and we were not disappointed. There were trout lilies and spring beauties and yellow violets blooming all across the forest floor. The wild leeks were up. Some of the trees were starting to leaf. We followed a deer path that we’d never taken before through the woods. When we came out of the woods, we walked along the fields to Burrell’s. Charlie and Lola Burrell have been dead for many years (Lola died in 1984, Charlie died in 2005), but every year the daffodils, peonies, and irises bloom in their old garden in profusion. We stopped to admire them as we walked home.
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| Trout lily. |
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| Spring beauties. |
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| Yellow wood violets. |
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| Wild leeks. |
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| Burrell's daffodils. |
There are still days when I cannot do much outdoors. Rainy days are welcome, but I think they come too often. When I’m stuck inside, I keep myself distracted with family history research, music (last week it was Mozart’s Piano Concertos), and books.
For my birthday back in February, Miriam gave me books. I love getting books as gifts, but these books were over the top wonderful. To appreciate the thoughtfulness of her gift, I have to give some back story.
When I was in seventh grade at Tallmadge Central Junior High School in Tallmadge, Ohio, I had study hall in the library. The table I was assigned to was the last in a row along the fiction shelves. For weeks as I sat at that table doing homework (well most likely pretending to do homework while I was daydreaming), a book on the shelf in front of me kept drawing my attention. I only saw the spine of the book. It wasn’t especially attractive. I don’t know why it caught my eye. One day I took the book off the shelf. It was a thick book – over six hundred pages. I wasn’t daunted by its size. I began to read it and was enchanted by it immediately. I took the book to the librarian and asked to check it out. She told me it was probably too advanced for me and asked if I was sure I wanted it. I assured her I did. I read that book twice during my seventh grade year. That began my life long love affair with The Once and Future King by T. H White. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it now. I’d guess more than a dozen times. For years I had a paperback copy that I eventually wore out. I bought a second paperback and I wore that one out too. Even later, when I belonged to the Folio Society, I bought their edition, a beautiful hardbound boxed book.
The Once and Future King is a book made up of four books joined together – The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind. I found out at some point that T. H. White originally published the first two books (I thought it was just two) separately and later merged them and the other two books into one book. When I discovered that, I found and then purchased a copy of The Sword in the Stone in its original version. It is different from the version in the combined book. It has more stories that were cut for the big book. I’ve always wanted a copy of the second book which, when it was published, was titled The Witch in the Wood. I found a copy of it in the public library in Wellsville that I’ve checked out several times. It too is a bit different than the version in the combined book. I offered to buy it from the library, but they wouldn’t sell it. I found copies for sale on line, but they were always too expensive.
Well, for my birthday this year, Miriam gave me The Witch in the Wood. And not only that, she gave me The Ill-made Knight, which I didn’t know existed as a separate book. I was thrilled when I opened the gift. I decided to read through all three books from the beginning. I’ve finished the first two and I’m half way through The Ill-made Knight. I never get tired of reading them. They are so charming and beautifully written. The Once and Future King has had a great amount of influence in my life. Through it, I fell in love with Medieval History, which became my major in college. It also got me interested in the great Arthurian legend cycles and introduced me to the works of Sir Thomas Mallory, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and others. If you’ve never read The Once and Future King, I highly recommend it. These books have been the perfect distraction for my anxious brain as this time of restriction and uneasiness drags on.
For my birthday back in February, Miriam gave me books. I love getting books as gifts, but these books were over the top wonderful. To appreciate the thoughtfulness of her gift, I have to give some back story.
When I was in seventh grade at Tallmadge Central Junior High School in Tallmadge, Ohio, I had study hall in the library. The table I was assigned to was the last in a row along the fiction shelves. For weeks as I sat at that table doing homework (well most likely pretending to do homework while I was daydreaming), a book on the shelf in front of me kept drawing my attention. I only saw the spine of the book. It wasn’t especially attractive. I don’t know why it caught my eye. One day I took the book off the shelf. It was a thick book – over six hundred pages. I wasn’t daunted by its size. I began to read it and was enchanted by it immediately. I took the book to the librarian and asked to check it out. She told me it was probably too advanced for me and asked if I was sure I wanted it. I assured her I did. I read that book twice during my seventh grade year. That began my life long love affair with The Once and Future King by T. H White. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it now. I’d guess more than a dozen times. For years I had a paperback copy that I eventually wore out. I bought a second paperback and I wore that one out too. Even later, when I belonged to the Folio Society, I bought their edition, a beautiful hardbound boxed book.
The Once and Future King is a book made up of four books joined together – The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind. I found out at some point that T. H. White originally published the first two books (I thought it was just two) separately and later merged them and the other two books into one book. When I discovered that, I found and then purchased a copy of The Sword in the Stone in its original version. It is different from the version in the combined book. It has more stories that were cut for the big book. I’ve always wanted a copy of the second book which, when it was published, was titled The Witch in the Wood. I found a copy of it in the public library in Wellsville that I’ve checked out several times. It too is a bit different than the version in the combined book. I offered to buy it from the library, but they wouldn’t sell it. I found copies for sale on line, but they were always too expensive.
Well, for my birthday this year, Miriam gave me The Witch in the Wood. And not only that, she gave me The Ill-made Knight, which I didn’t know existed as a separate book. I was thrilled when I opened the gift. I decided to read through all three books from the beginning. I’ve finished the first two and I’m half way through The Ill-made Knight. I never get tired of reading them. They are so charming and beautifully written. The Once and Future King has had a great amount of influence in my life. Through it, I fell in love with Medieval History, which became my major in college. It also got me interested in the great Arthurian legend cycles and introduced me to the works of Sir Thomas Mallory, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and others. If you’ve never read The Once and Future King, I highly recommend it. These books have been the perfect distraction for my anxious brain as this time of restriction and uneasiness drags on.
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| My collection of Once and Future King books. |
On Thursday evening, the Thayns arrived, at last, to spend the weekend. All these weeks of them being isolated at their house and us isolated here were a bit maddening. This was little Florence’s first trip to visit her grandparents. She’s only three weeks old so she won’t remember it, but her grandparents will. She is precious. So with the Thayns here, our house was lively, just the way I love it. We had a lot of fun together. On Friday afternoon, we drove down to Lyman Lake. Our reason for going was two-fold. There had been reports of loons on the lake, and Tabor wanted to go fishing. We saw a loon, but Tabor didn’t catch any fish. On Saturday we spent most of the day building the pig pen. Tabor is good at planning and executing that sort of thing. When we were done, we were pleased and even better, the pigs approved. We also managed to play the first croquet game of the year.
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| Lyman Lake. |
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| The loon. |
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| June, Mabel, Hazel (the girls), and Wilbur, and Orville (the pigs) |
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| Building the new pigpen with Tabor. |
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| The new pigpen. |
It is a beautiful day, maybe the finest spring day we’ve had so far. It is sunny and breezy and 70°. After our in-home church, we all took a walk around the property to look at the flowers. Now lunch preparations are underway. Later this afternoon the Thayns are leaving for home. Then the house will be quiet and sad again. I took a look at the week ahead. It looks like the days will be good all week with temperatures in the 50's, but the nights will dip into the low 30's and high 20's. I don’t see any frost warnings, but that could change. This is the time of year when I fret most about frost. The lilacs have buds, the lilies are up several inches, and the pear and plum trees have flower buds. A hard frost will damage them and then we will have no lilac or lily flowers or pears or plums this year. The apples haven’t budded out enough to worry yet. I’ll have sheets at the ready to cover what I can if I need to, but it won’t help too much.
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| A game of croquet. |
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| Sitting in the sun with Florence (can you tell I haven't had a haircut since March?). |
I have plans for the week, of course – work to do at the barn, weeding, mowing. I need to clean the back porch to get it ready to put out plants to start hardening them up for planting out. I also need to clean the woodshed. And I have lots of time to do it all. I love this busy, blooming time of year.
