Signs of spring

The raspberry canes are turning red. The willows are yellow. The redwinged blackbirds and killdeer are back as well.

In our alternate universe robins are not a sign of spring. They stay here year-round.

In the median on Goat Island near the bridge to Celinda, Angelina and Aseneth, (Three Sisters) witch hazel is in full bloom – the true first flower of spring.

Meanwhile, we are trapped in the beginning of “Unlocking.” Kurt Vonnegut was big on suggesting we should have 6 seasons, the 4 we know, plus locking and unlocking. I think it was in Cat's Cradle. Be careful with Ice Nine.

Unlocking is when the maple sap flows, before the ramps and trout lilies show in May. It’s also mud season, and for high school sports fans, the coldest time of the year, baseball season.

The kids won’t return to the youth baseball fields for another few weeks.

Visiting an estate sale in Lewiston on Saturday, we walked across the condo development lawn and felt it squish under our feet.

Most people wouldn’t think anything of it but to me, walking along that Legacy Estates lawn I felt scorn. That water is trapped near the soil because what was once a forest became a farm field. Then it went fallow. Inevitably, when it was raped for a subdivision, the first thing the builders do is scrape off the 18 to 24 inches of pristine topsoil. Then roads and underground utilities are put in and, after the homes are built, they put an inch or 2 of topsoil over the clay substrate before putting in sprinklers and rolling in sod.

The result is chemically enhanced suburban monoculture bright green in the summer until it turns brown from a lack of water retention and soggy in the spring when the sod doesn’t drain. It fits perfectly in down-the-hill, lily-white MAGA suburbia, just not in the real world.

Be patient. The crocuses and snowdrops will bloom before you know it.