Dreaming of Spring

I was looking through the pictures of gardens and flowers on my cell phone the other day and I really, really, really can’t wait for Spring. This winter is kicking my a$$, if you know what I mean. Arctic vortexes, wind chills that make you feel like you’re in outer space (there’s probably no wind in space except for solar wind, but you know what I mean), and it’s been snowing using the “water torture treatment” method, one-half inch at a time, either every day or every other day. And when it's not snowing the temperatures are plummeting below zero.  

The roads are a permanent mess, always wet, never dry. My car hasn’t been washed in a month and it looks like it. My feet are constantly frozen, from November through April, and no matter what I do it seems I just can't keep them warm.  I’m just miserable.

I live in Wisconsin. Say it with me:  “Wis-kaaaahn-sin”. We have six month winters. They start in late October and go through April.  The latest date it has ever snowed was May 10th. May!!!  Last year we had a cold, wet spring, followed by a cool summer and an early winter. I remember almost crying as the days ticked by and fall got closer. I really felt like I had been cheated out of the only season during which my feet aren’t cold.

I miss green. Around here in the spring and summer it’s a beautiful shade of green. The trees, the grass, the fields, everything is just eye-popping green. Right now the landscape looks like it was painted by an Ansel Adams wanna-be: black, white and grey with a hint of blue in the sky on some days.

It’s dark too. It’s dark when I get up and dark when I get home from work. I do not like getting up when it is still dark outside. As the days get longer it’s a bit better at night, but it’s still pretty dark in the morning. My only saving grace is that my desk is right next to a window so I do get to see the sun when it makes it’s rare appearances.

I walk my dog every day. Rain, snow, wind, in the dark, unless it's below zero she has to make sure she gets her walks. It would be very nice to say, "Honey, can you pleeeeeeeaaaase take the dog out for a walk today so my feet don't get cold?" But, alas, it's all up to me. So I bundle myself up every night after work and head out the door with my dog for our walks.

In the summer the Robins start singing about 4:30 in the morning and don’t stop until after 10:00 at night. The birds don’t sing as much in the winter, too. I miss the sound of the birds. The other day the temperatures were just about at the freezing mark and the birds were singing!! When you haven't heard that in a while it's a beautiful sound. Even my canary doesn’t like to sing in the winter. I know how he feels.

I still have my Christmas decorations up outside too. They are buried in about a foot of snow with just their little tops peeking out and their bottoms frozen to the ground. We usually get a January thaw when we get to take them down, but it’s not in the forecast this year.

But soon, probably before you know it, the snow will change to rain and I’ll eventually get to take my Christmas decorations down. Toward the end of February I will get to start some of my garden plants from seed and can watch them grow every day. Then the temps will start to creep over zero and up into the thirties!! Once it gets into the forties we will all have a full blown case of Spring fever. Can’t wait.

Until then, I still have my pictures from last year. I’m off to thaw out my feet.