'Spring Fever'
- Caroline & Garry
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
‘Spring Fever’
A feeling of restlessness and excitement felt at the beginning of Spring’
Oxford Languages.
Spring has Sprung and isn’t it wonderful? I don’t know about you but this is the time I like to reconnect with nature and both Garry and I get the travelling itch to get out and about and enjoy our wonderful country.
As I sit here typing I can see the blossom from our heavily laden cherry blossom tree, blowing like confetti in the wind and blanketing Garry’s freshly mowed lawn. The branches are so full they are hanging down heavy under the blossoms weight. It really is a picture. I can feel myself starting to wax lyrical but I am no poet, luckily Poetry abounds on the beauty and colour of spring, so I thought I might share one or two.
‘There is no time like the Spring,
When life’s alive in everything,’
Christini Rossetti
We have been lucky since living in our current home, to have had Thrushes nesting every year and boy can they sing. If you happen to be near one when it decides to let loose it really can make your ears ring as Gerard Manley Hopkins noted:-
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
I have noticed that once we have turned the corner from winter I have an urge to open all the windows and doors and let the outside in.
Billy Collins in his poem Today, obviously enjoyed the same urge:-
If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throwopen all the windows in the house
Naturally I can’t mention Spring without a few lines from William Wordsworth.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Our garden is definitely a Spring garden. We inherited it, we are not gardeners, unfortunately. The moment the muscari flower I am waiting for the bright yellow of the daffodils and narcissi closely followed by the red of the tulips and pink of the camellia. Then before I know it the Acer is in leaf and the cherry blossom has plumped into pinkness. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote of the spring leaves: ‘Of little leaves opening stickily.’
All this rebirth makes me feel energised and smiley.
From the Loveliest of Trees by A E Housman.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough.
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
In our last house we didn’t enjoy a garden. We had a small sunny courtyard, and an open parking space. I filled it all with pots of colour and sometimes on a sunny day I would find my neighbours sat on their chairs in the car park, with a cup of tea, enjoying the colours of spring.
Even the Beatles sang about Spring. ‘Here comes the Sun’ was written and sung by George Harrison and is about his relief at the arrival of Spring.
Then there are the hedgehogs who awake from their winter hibernation and if you are lucky arrive in your garden. When I was a child there was always a hedgehog in the garden, not so much now unfortunately, but you can encourage them given the right habitat.
We have several animals in this country that hibernate:
The cute Dormouse,see above. Bats (we have a few here, its mesmerising watching their aerial swoops and circling) and even Badgers if its cold semi- hibernate apparently. We have a regular visiting badger during the nights. Let me tell you if you haven’t been close up with a badger, they absolutely pong and they have very sharp teeth and claws!
How else do we celebrate the arrival of Spring in this Country? For Christians it coincidently arrives with the celebration of the Resurrection. According to English Heritage during the middle ages it was a time when friends exchanged Eggs (not the chocolate kind) as they were freely and cheaply available at this time, this continued until the 19th century when chocolate eggs replaced them. Maypole Dancing was a popular pastime, every village green had a maypole. Morris Dancing still goes on and can be watched through out the country. Delicious spicy Hot Cross Buns and for the unlucky ones like me and Garry Hayfever!!!
And don’t forget those longer days!
Its taken a while longer than usual to type this because every so often I find that I have been gazing out of the window - just looking.
I will never lose my love of spring.
SPRING
The wind told the grass
And the grass told the trees
The Trees told the Bushes
And the bushes told the bees
The bees told the robin
And the robin sang clear
“Wake Up!
Wake Up!
Spring is here!”
Donna Coleman
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.
See you soon Cx
A little something extra to make you smile.
Always so much happier when Spring arrives. Thanks ,again for your relevant research, comments and poetry. All the best. Nic & Rob
Thank you for sharing, a lovely read as we are parked up in the Chantilly Forest, France