Spring Visuals

Every year I used to make a "Firsts of Spring" chart - it is so ingrained in us now that I don't need to make a chart. My kids are adults, yet will text me they saw ... They know how that first bluebird and crocus flower lifts my spirit. YEAH! Winter is over - tho not so winter weather, still to come thru May, tho the in-between days are longer and warmer! Robins have come. I've cleaned out my bird houses for this years tenants. Aspen catkins will soon be budding. Then I look forward to the first hummingbird sound mid-May. I don't look forward to the first smell of a stinkbug.

Years ago too I made some little felt flower people and bunnies. I got the idea from a book I have from the UK. Waldorf schools always have these visual aids for the seasons - like having a seasonal table that is always changing. Kids can go on nature walks and add things to the table. Our kitchen table is usually the seasonal table. I have a wreath hanging over the table that I'll often hang seasonal or holiday things from. For the Fall I made little trolls. They remind my heart that tho nature appears dead in winter, beneath the scenes, nature is regrouping for the next year's new birth to life.

Spring is a fertile season. No baby chicks for us this year, as in years past. No kids are around and I want to have the freedom to go places with Monte and not find caretakers. But in the future? ... I do miss my chickens. Little Johnny Jump-up Violas are some of the first flowers to bloom, along with the crocus. The other little lady is trillium. Then there's the little brown seed-pods.