The old adage says that March “comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.” The first days of March this year were not especially fierce. In fact, the first two days of March were the warmest days of the week, with temperatures rising to a pleasant 45°. The rest of the week was colder and it snowed a bit on Wednesday night, but we’ve had far more leonine early March days than that. As for going “out like a lamb,” we’ll see. The whole month is unpredictable. I wondered about that “lion, lamb” adage, so I did a little research and found that the earliest known citation is in Thomas Fuller’s 1732 compendium, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British. Most sources say it refers to March’s weather as winter gives way to spring. Others believe it refers to the constellations in the zodiac. At the start of the month, Leo the Lion is on the eastern horizon at sunset and at the end of the month, Aries the Ram is on the western horizon at sunset. I tried to catch a glimpse of Leo at sunset all week, but it was always cloudy. Whether stars or weather, I’m glad it’s March now and spring is almost here.
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| Leo and Aries. |
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| Sunrise on Tuesday. |
My seed and plant orders began arriving last week and I got ambitious and started preparing my seed starting area. In years past I’ve used the upstairs bay window and the work table under grow-lights in the workroom. That has worked fairly well, but as the plants take up more and more space over the weeks, it becomes inconvenient for doing other work in the room such as sign painting and quilting. This year I’m converting the workbench in the woodshed to my seed starting station. On Wednesday I did some general tidying in the woodshed and cleared away items from the workbench and window sill. I set up a grow-light and put heating pads in place. With more room at my disposal, I can see that I’m going to need two more heating pads and another grow-light. It’s almost time to start my first seeds. I determine my seed starting schedule by counting the weeks backward from Planting Out Day, which this year will be Saturday, May 28th. That means this Saturday is Week 10. All seeds that need to be started ten weeks before planting out can be sown then. That’s exciting. There aren’t too many seeds that need that long of a head start – just celery and parsley. But each week from now on there will be more seeds to start. And so the Garden of 2022 will soon begin to actually grow.
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| Seed orders in the mail! |
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| My seed starting station in the woodshed. |
On Wednesday afternoon while the weather was still nice, I took a long walk around the yard. The snow was gone in many places, but the long border and most of the orchard were still covered. The front of the house from the porch to the driveway that doesn’t get much sun, was a sheet of ice. While I was out, I went to my little greenhouse and sat on a bucket inside for half an hour contemplating garden plans. It was 78° in there and the sun felt so good on my face. Then I walked out to the meadow. Standing on the crest of the meadow bank, I frightened a flock of ducks and a pair of hooded mergansers on the beaver pond across the road. There must have been a dozen ducks. I don’t think they were mallards – they seemed smaller and darker. The red-winged blackbirds were singing at high volume. I sat on the swing on the big maple in the meadow and watched for the ducks to return hoping to identify the species. One of the mergansers came back but the ducks never did.
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| The greenhouse, my warm sitting place. |
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| Ornamental grass in the long border. |
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| The beaver pond as seen from the top of the meadow bank. |
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| The hooded merganser that returned. |
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| The swing in the meadow. |
Yesterday Stacey, Hannah, and I did a service project. Several weeks ago a bistro/craft shop in town had a fire and we volunteered to help with the cleanup. Stacey and Hannah worked on cleaning merchandise that was dirtied in the fire. I worked at pulling down a drop ceiling and hauling the tiles to a dumpster. We worked for four hours. The owners provided lunch for us. It felt good to help them out. When we got back from that, the weather had warmed a little and I thought I’d go out and drag pruned branches from the orchard to the burn pile. Unfortunately, things hadn’t thawed out enough and they were all frozen to the ground. I’m hoping for more mild weather soon so I can finish working in the orchard.
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| Sunrise on Saturday. |
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| At our service project, me dumping tiles. |
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| Hannah cleaning. |
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| Stacey cleaning. |
Today was a very lamb-like day. After cooling off later in the week, today it has warmed to 64°. When we got home from church, Miriam, Hannah, and I took a walk around the property. It was sunny and windy, a perfect March day. We walked to the crest of the meadow bank to see what was happening across the road at the beaver pond. This time the birds did not fly away. There were lots of Canada geese, a few mallards and hooded mergansers, and some ring-necked ducks. From there we walked through the orchard and then to the front flowerbed where the first of the snowdrops are blooming. With the snow retreating, so many little shoots are pushing up in the flower beds. As we walked we breathed in the smell of spring. I don’t know how to describe that smell exactly. It is earthy, fresh, damp, alive, and so much more. But, being March, this weather will not last. By tomorrow night the forecast says we have a 30% chance for snow – the lion flexing his muscles again. But it will not last. The end of winter is in sight at last.
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| Canada geese and ring-necked ducks this afternoon. |
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| The first snowdrops open. |
Today in church we sang one of my favorite hymns (#2 in our present hymnal), The Spirit of God, with words by William W. Phelps (1792-1872). Brother Phelps wrote this hymn in 1836 for the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. It has been sung at every temple dedication since then and was included in the first hymnal published that same year. We sang it today because I chose it. And I chose it because of its powerful reminder that these are the last days foretold in prophecy. I love its message that great things are happening and will continue to happen as the last days unfold. I also chose it because the image of the lion and the lamb was stuck in my head all week, and in verse four the hymn looks forward to the Millennial day when “the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire.” Our present time is filled with ire. I look forward to a time of peace.
The latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
And angels are coming to visit the earth.
We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven,
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
Henceforth and forever, Amen and amen!
Restoring their judges and all as at first.
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst.
[Chorus]
To spread forth the kingdom of heaven abroad,
That we through our faith may begin to inherit
The visions and blessings and glories of God.
[Chorus]
Shall lie down together without any ire,
And Ephraim be crowned with his blessing in Zion,
As Jesus descends with his chariot of fire!
[Chorus]
