2025 Springtime in
Roscommon
Since
I have decided that our winter of 2024/2025 is now over, I thought I should
advise you of the status of the oncoming spring via a blog. I had been
considering issuing a new blog anyway and so my early morning decision about
the end of winter seemed to be a marriage of practicality and timeliness.
It
is probably no surprise that I always try to write something on a topic that I
know about. It is either that, or I must write something sufficiently clever so
that those of you who have nothing better to do than follow my blogs, continue
to do so. I stared writing this morning. As shown in the picture above, I began
too soon after making my way from the bed to the computer.
It is now several days later, and I have
finally decided to continue writing by looking up a few of my earlier blogs on the
topic of springtime in Roscommon. I found the following two poems in an
earlier blog and they were written by authors too famous to ignore, so here
they are.
Daffodowndilly, A.A. Milne*
She wore her yellow
sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest
gown,
She turned to the
south wind,
And curtsied up and
down,
She turned to the
sunlight,
And shook her yellow
head,
And whispered to her
neighbor
“Winter is dead”
(This poem is in the
public domain)
Snowball, Shel Silverstein, Falling
Up, 1996
I made myself a
snowball
As perfect as could
be
I thought I’d keep it
as a pet
And let it sleep with
me.
I made it some
pajamas,
And a pillow for its
head.
Then last night it
ran away,
But first – it wet
the bed.
2025 Springtime in Roscommon
Winter in Roscommon began in November 2024 after the first
snowfall entertained our deer hunters who cheered the snow that made tracking
their prey a bit easier. Things went downhill from there. Frankly, the 2024/2025
winter was a doozy with excessive snow, too much cold, and too little sun. Now,
it is behind us as the calendar indicates. Yet the recent rain and lack of warm
sunshine is making spring in Roscommon problematic as winter seems not to want
to depart. After analyzing this circumstance for several weeks, I decided that
bold action is needed to chase winter and welcome spring. What better way to
accomplish this than a blog declaring that winter is now dead. Of course, some
evidence for this cataclysmic change needs to be given and I decided that I am
just the correspondent needed to convince doubters that spring has arrived in
Roscommon.
The hints that spring has arrived
are everywhere. One of the early indicators that winter has ended comes from my
pond. Last fall, the pond responded to the first snow in November by forming a
layer of ice at the shoreline and extending a dozen feet or more into the
deeper water. The ice must have liked what it found because it decided to stay
for the next four months. The ice is now a distant memory as it melted last
month at the south end of the pond that was shaded by leafless trees. Those
same trees are now showing buds and the tall swamp grass that ringed the pond at
its north end are now dead, as they float into the deeper water pushed by the growing plants
who seem to think their 2025 growth is more important than last year’s
offspring that died after the first snow.
I have ventured to the river several times over the last
month and noted the two new beaver lodges that adorn the shore. I don’t know if
this portends the end of winter or not but at least is shows that beaver think
so. The source of the material for the new lodges is readily seen: sometime
during the last several weeks beaver have felled two of my Red Pine trees and
dragged the branches to the river’s shore at the end of my property.
The daffodils in the front lawn are
now responding to the warm sun just as A. A. Milne offered and a have several
dozen of the daffodils showing their bright yellow color.
|
*
Alan Alexander Milne (1882 –1956) was a British
author, editor, poet, and playwright. Born in London, he is best known for
his children’s books about Winnie-the-Pooh. He produced a vast amount of work
in other entertainment genres. Interestingly, his degree was in mathematics.
Milne served in both World Wars, despite his position as a pacifist. Though
he suffered poor health in later years, he was at one time a gifted cricket
player. I have several daffodils now showing their yellow
blooms just as Milne described. Of course, I have no spring tulips to admire
as a harbinger of the changing season. I planted several upon first moving to
Roscommon, but they all disappeared. It took me several years to learn that
tulips are a favorite treat for the local deer population, thus depriving me
of another plant that shows its colors in spring. |
Another important indicator of the
seasonal change is the noise in the morning. We now have numerous woodpeckers
who beat the logs, tree limbs, and a nearby road sign in hopes of attracting a
mate. In addition to the woodpeckers, we now have many of our resident songbirds
who think they should begin their singing as soon as the sun peaks over the
horizon. While we are talking about birds, here is clincher that winter is dead
in Roscommon and spring is now fully in command of our weather: today, May 8,
2025, a single hummingbird arrived at our feeder to the serenade of the Spring
Peepers who finally began their regular calls to other new-borne frogs (in
search of sex). Ain’t life grand.
