The Expectant Time

Temperatures are in the 70's, the winds are still, and there is a hush, a silence of waiting, waiting for the burst of new life. Of course there have been some early March arrivals.....a few sleepy wasps and bees who preceded the usual food supply, tiny buds on the lilac bushes, some ants and flies and the early greens reaching up from the snow in advance of their flowers still in their winter sleep.

This silence is punctured by the buzz of the bush trimmers, the laughter of children, the chatter of neighbors and the crowing of an unexpected rooster in the flock of the neighbor's hens.

These sounds come and go, giving way to the longer stretches of the pregnant silence. Spring will soon be here with buds bursting, flowers emerging, grass growing and swarms of the seasonal birds joining the regulars at the bird feeders.

Is it early this year? The stretch of time between the vanishing snow and the welcoming spring? It seems to be and may also be a forewarning of one of those excruciating hot, hot summers. We have been fortunate to have had pleasant summers for the past several years, so perhaps it is time for us to be surrounded by stifling heat.

But for now, enough of the negative thoughts. It is the time of no snow shoveling or lawn mowing. It is time to enjoy the lull and welcome warmth of this mild, mellow March in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota.

It won't be long now.