Out of the Ordinary

Saturday morning began with this surprise find … a pretty buttercream daffodil emerging through the brown debris of winter. It is right in my line of vision from my writing chair, which I moved to a new spot after all our remodeling of the past year. This bulb feels like a gift, as if someone was thinking – oh, she’d love to see this! I have no memory of planting this little friend. Was it a present from a kind squirrel? Or did my husband or I transplant bulbs here last fall and my mind is too squirrelly to remember? Whatever. I accept. It’s pretty awesome. 

A few hours later, snow squalls burst onto the scene – the chilled air was now raining sleet and icy cold marvel. We have had a mighty warm winter here in the Mid-Atlantic, so I took this change in the weather as a gift, as well…one little tiny taste of snow before spring takes over. 

I went for a long walk in the midst of the cold, flashing back on my experience with this kind of weather my senior year of high school, when my father was transferred and we moved to the Navy shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The base is located on an island, and snowstorms played out very differently than the same storm some 20 miles inland. The snow would frequently squall, spin, and spiral into a cold spitting rain, sending raw icy pellets every which way. I remember trudging to and from school in the midst of such weather, lowering my face, trying to shield myself.  In Maine, nothing was ever canceled due to such weather; everyone went about their business as if it was just an ordinary day. 

So, I went walking this past Saturday.  And it was beautiful. It was not an ordinary day.

Here are two photos.

What a juxtaposition, this wild wintry weather alongside our tender early spring flowers. I’m so glad that I got to see this – because within just a few hours, the squall passed, the snow and ice disappeared, and the spring flowers went back to standing tall and assertive, as if to say – Spring is coming!!