Spring Fever

[LaMedicine]

:icon_smil I'm sitting at work with a pile of papers I need to sign...but as I write the date on each of the documents, I think, "It's only a couple of days till March!"...and sort of start, daydreaming....

In this part of the world where I now live, the 3rd of March, this Friday, is Peach Blossom Festival, also known as Hina Dolls' Festival, or Girls' Day. As soon as Valentine's Day is over, the store shelves are lined with the dolls, candies and other goods that are a must for the day. When we see all that stuff go up, we think, "Spring is just around the corner", whether it is a blizzard outside, or a fine day.
Soon after the festival is over, the weather bureau starts including in its forecast, the "cherry blossom front line." It's the forecast for when the cherry blossoms will start blooming, and when they will be in full bloom. Here, where I live, the flowers will start blooming around the last week of March, will be in full regalia around the end of March/first few days of April, and last through the first week of April. The frontline starts from the south around the time of the spring Equinox, and travel to the north slowly, until around the first week of May.
Though the trees start blooming slowly, they seem to burst into full bloom overnight, and we wake up one morning, to a world suddenly full of pink...all over the place. It never fails to amaze me that the trees that line the streets I am familiar with, will suddenly turn into pink clouds, then after a night of rain and strong winds, again almost over night, we wake up to trees with bright green leaves, and streets and rivers covered by a pink blanket.
Just the thought of it is pleasant, and the blossoms to us, signify spring in full swing.

So, what comes to your mind when you think of spring?
Any tradition/events where you live/grew up that will always remind you of the beauty and hope and peace of mind that spring brings to you that we can share?

Okay, I'd better get back to work.*sigh*

 

[geo]

Spring's a long time away. It's -30 Celsius with the windchill here this morning. I try to forget that it's almost March, because it's always disapointing, always too cold.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

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What a great post! For me, it's when the wisteria on the other side of my pond begins to bloom. It should start in about 3 weeks.

 

[Harry Lime]

March in Chicago is the cruelest month. You might get a few days that approach 60 F...only to have the temperature plunge to 0 or get a foot of snow. It's very up and down. Then, about April...

Zohar's picture gives me hope. I have a couple of flowering crab trees that are gorgeous in Spring. The bulbs start to come up, there's more and more sunlight, the landscapers start with the mowers again...can't wait.

Then two weeks after that we're generally in the nineties and humid. (Kidding, but almost not. Chicago weather isn't the greatest. Good thing I travel a lot.)

Harry Lime

 

[J.B.]

Pitto... huh?

Great thread!!!

I live in The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion.

March ushers in the most incredible reminder here that Spring is "just around the corner"...

...and every resident and visitor to L.A. will associate and remember it -- at least in a subliminal way. For me, it is indelibly etched in my mind. When I run at night here while the air is still -- it is magnificent and unforgettable! Most people here call it "orange blossom" or "mock orange" or "California gardenia" but it's the smell of pittosporum?!

An old L.A. Magazine that I saved said: "March comes in like a lion in other parts of the country; here it arrives like God's own Avon lady, a trunk of fragrances in tow. If asked to name the components, many residents would safely hazard orange blossom and, in areas like the Hollywood Hills, where jasmine's pink and white stars cascade over every other security fence, that heady bouquet as well. What Angelenos are most likely to be smelling, however......is the tiny flower of the pittosporum tree. Given that the word pittosporum evokes a Roman cuspidor sooner than a cream-colored blossom, the lack of name recognition is understandable.....

"Orange blossom delivers its olfactory message in Sensurround; pittosporum is simply there, filling the night with fragrant certitude. Lacking jasmine's back note of seraglio, pittosporum's luxurious odor is somehow cleaner, less indolent, more Big Sur than Palm Springs....

"...perhaps all the evidence we need of the attraction lies in our own noses. Here in the City of Angels, the air is vibrant, the ground pliable, the nondescript shrub screening the alley frosted with blooms. Just breathe."

I have one sitting right outside my front door and very soon now......!

Gotta lurve L.A.! :arated:

 

[scotrace]

Also Cherry Blossoms - a wonderful thread.

Watching the dogwood and yoshino cherry in my front yard, I can see that the former will finally bloom for the first time this spring. The yoshino is there for the very reason you describe - to tell me that spring has finally arrived. Then the Japanese maple will begin to leaf out in red, along with the plum and its blossoms. Beside the path to my porch is an Eastern Redbud, which will also flame pink just after the cherry.

 

[Cabinetman]

We were fortunate to be able to visit Japan during "sakura" season a few years ago. Cherry blossoms all over the place! Very neat. I take cold much better than heat, but I, too, am ready for a bit of a warm up. Mild in central IL today, though. 56, I believe.

 

[whistlebait]

That is a beautiful picture of your pond, Zohar.

 

[Burma Shave]

Hyacinths

I just moved to South Carolina last fall, so I wasn't sure when spring came in the middle of the state. To me, flowering something-or-anothers are the single greatest harbingers of spring, and it seems most here agree with me.

As I'm not familiar with the flowering season here, I decided in the fall to push things along a little. I put some hyacinth bulbs in the refrigerator for about eight weeks to make them think they were lying dormant, then on Christmas Eve I put them in a large glass bowl filled with glass marbles. Filled it with water (not quite enough to touch the bottoms of the bulbs) and set it in the window seat in my office.

Now it's almost March, and I have eight-inch-tall hyacinths growing purply in my office. They may be a bit out of place: With the mass of black-and-white photos, the collection of knives, the two basses and the thousands of books in here, they're the only floral touch. But it's spring inside, even though it's been rainy and dreary outside.

And helping the spring-like process along -- I gave my lady friend an engagement/marriage ring this weekend, and she accepted it!! :cheers1:

(It may interest Loungers to know that it's a 1920s filigree ring, in white gold basketweave with tiny magnolia blossoms on the sides and a sapphire on top to match a pair of [also 1920s] sapphire and diamond earrings I gave her this time last year. Apparently the bestowing of jewelry is becoming the "springtime ritual" of choice, at least for this happy man.)

 

[Cabinetman]

And helping the spring-like process along -- I gave my lady friend an engagement/marriage ring this weekend, and she accepted it!! :cheers1:

Are you giddy as a baby on a swing??

Congratulations to you both. Very exciting!

Cab

 

["Doc" Devereux]

Congratulations Burma Shave, may every day together bring you equal happiness!

:cheers1:

 

[Burma Shave]

Thanks, y'all!

Yes, I'd say I'm more than somewhat pleased with the situation.

"Are you giddy as a baby on a swing??" -- Indeed.
Enough so that I mistakenly called the flowers on the ring magnolias. They're azalea blossoms. Wouldn't be a big issue to most, but she's from Mobile, Alabama, and was an Azalea Trail Maid when she was a teenager -- dressed up in a blue frilly dress, Gone with the Wind hat and all that. So she's a fan of the azaleas.

Me, I'm just glad to be here!

 

[whistlebait]

Congrats Burma Shave! Hope you have many happy years together.

 

[LaMedicine]

Oh, my!
Congratulations, Burma Shave!!:eusa_clap
How wonderful to hear news so worthy of Spring!!:cheers1:

Zohar, the picture of your pond looks like one of the paintings of Manet, it is very beautiful!!

To those of you whom spring is still a bit of a distance away, I hope you won't have to wait too long to get whiffs of the scent in the air.
Here, today, it's turned a bit cold, overcast with threats of rain, and the temperature barely into the 50s. The plum blossoms, which should be almost gone by now, is still not yet in full bloom, much less the peach blossoms which should be blooming in time for Dolls' Day, so, will we get our cherry blossoms by the end of March, or will it be later, I am wondering.
Well, so it goes. Cold days, some warmer days, but gradually, the colder days will become less cold and the weather finer.

 

[Zach R.]

Spring already? It hasn't even gotten cold here yet and now its supposed to warm up?!:eusa_doh:

The only thing that means is an influx of tourists.

I'm moving up north.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Cool posts above! As for me, I am very anxious to see spring blossoms cover the West Virginia hills!!!!!