It's All In How You Look At It

Nothing says Spring better than the fresh, vibrant color of tiny new leaves.  The ivy plant hanging in our atrium is proudly giving birth to new growth in response to longer days and more sunshine.

 

Looking for a few pertinent words about spring, I turned to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and was surprised to find how many expressed a view different from the expected.  To be sure, I found a few of the usual "tiptoeing through the tulips" sentiments:

      In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. 

                                                                      Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 and

      Spring, with that nameless pathos in the air

      Which dwells with all things fair.              Henry Timrod

First let me send condolences to those of you who live in a galaxy far, far away from California and its spring, a season which begins here as early as February and is galloping merrily along by now.  Of course, spring is, by its nature, quite fickle--no matter where you are.  In fact, though the past month was so warm and sunny that most green growing things got all revved up, we just had a week of sorely-needed cold rain here in the Sacramento Valley and lots of snow in the Sierras.  "Spring" seems to be an apt terms--lots of ups and downs! 

First leaf buds on a Black Oak

Henry Van Dyke took note of this fact in his book, Fisherman's Luck: 

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.

 

Stephen Vincent Benet must have been having a bad day in the big city when he wrote:

     Now grimy April comes again, .....

And Samuel Butler likewise:

     To me it seems that youth is like spring, an over-praised season .....

 

Leaflets on a willow

But I like spring, and so I resonate more with John Milton: 

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.

                                                                              

Leaflets and blossoms on a Japanese maple

And, if we really want to get into the "springy" spirit, why not let it all hang out, romping and bouncing along as John Logan sings "To the Cuckoo" :

     Oh could I fly, I'd fly with thee!
     We'd make with joyful wing
     Our annual visit o'er the globe,
     Companions of the spring.

                  
                      
                   After all, in the words of humorist Donald R.P. Marquis:
                                     Oh, what the hell, it's Spring!