Last week was Spring Break at Framingham State, so today was the first time I’d been on campus in over a week. It’s been an unseasonably cold spring: in Newton, our tulips started to sprout leaves about a week ago and then promptly stopped, their growth stunted by a dismaying string of below-freezing nights. I’d hoped that the end of Spring Break would coincide with the arrival of spring weather, but instead, today is cold and gray, with the forecast calling for a nor’easter and overnight snow.
Given how slow spring is in arriving this year, you’d think that a sparse sprinkling of witch hazel blossoms next to the library at Framingham State–the first flowering thing I’ve seen all spring–would be enough to bring a hint of cheer, but any cheeriness was quashed when I checked my Flickr archives and found this:
This is what this same witch hazel shrub looked like last March 7th, just before a storm brought sixteen inches of fresh snow. That wasn’t the final snowstorm we had last March–we got another eight inches on March 19th–but realizing that this time last year, we had snowdrops blooming under our eaves…
…was enough to drive me to despair, given that this same spot is still buried under a remnant of all the snow J has raked off our roof this year.
Cervantes said comparisons are odious, and Theodore Roosevelt said comparison is the thief of joy. Had I nothing to compare this weather with, I might be content that there is something blooming, somewhere. Instead, I look at that image of last year’s snowdrops–my calendar image for the month of March–and feel a bit like a child who’s been told there will be no Christmas this year. Yes, the spring will arrive, eventually, but how will it compare to the Photos of Springs Past?
Mar 25, 2014 at 5:14 pm
I managed to look at the weather map for the nation rather than only n my own miserable tale of extended winter and I am feeling sad for your part of the world. This has gone on far too long. In a spirit of optimism, though, please be reminded that there grows in Newton one of the few specimens of this tree:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/interviews/sam-van-aken-interview
I hope you can find it when it blooms and enjoy its spender.
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Mar 27, 2014 at 12:40 am
Ahem, autocorrect, I actually wrote ‘splendor’ and that is what I meant, please.
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Mar 25, 2014 at 6:30 pm
I’ve been reading my journal from this time last year and, like you, the comparison just depresses me–spring is just not happening this year! Although there is a hint of a warm-up predicted for the weekend . . .
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Mar 26, 2014 at 2:31 am
“Comparison is the thief of joy” — I love that!
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