Early spring in the Ozarks. I’ve finally found the place in the world I’ve been looking for all of my life. It’s a place where you can walk outside and as soon as you get through the door, you’re in the early springtime woods. You take a deep breath of late winter and watch spring songbirds starting to show up, they’re tuning their whistles and chirps getting ready to find mates to help build summer homes somewhere among the thickets. Twigs and branches already have swollen nodes waiting to bloom, slight tinges of ochre-green and light brown are beginning to paint the hardwood forest patiently waiting for the last frost to pass away north. Sometimes if the timing and temperature is right, fogs can appear on the land and it can be pretty with bright sunshine above glinting off trees and twigs and sun rays stabbing through to shine on remnants of frost on the ground.
Out in the wild parts, black bear cubs will soon take their first tentative steps behind sleepy and hungry mamas out of the darkness and into a bright world of things that need to be explored and climbed. Feathered mothers-to-be are already negotiating with nature’s realtors for prime locations to build and deposit this year’s egglings, all the while cheerfully singing and checking grocery locations for places to find fare to cram into little open beaks surely to be hissing and squawking for attention soon.
We’re getting plenty of late winter rains and the wet-weather creeks have been running aplenty, which is good news for a nice dogwood bloom to follow in April. They will complement the forest décor of red bud (which is actually beautiful pink, but pink bud just doesn’t sound as catchy as red bud). I’ve heard those red bud blossoms make a tasty jelly, but haven’t tried it yet. The dogwoods are especially pretty if the timing is right and they bloom just before the greenery gets going, because if they are late, they’re harder to see for all the new green leaves. If they do their thing nice and early, the woods can resemble rivers of white and it’s spectacular – one of my favorite sights that occurs in the woods.
A lot of people don’t pay it much attention, but if you look carefully at the oaks as they begin to put on new leaves, the new shoots can be as red as black gums in the fall, they’re just not as big and showy as fall colors. We have a tree or shrub around here, I think they’re called autumn olives, they put on tiny white flowers that smell close to the same as gardenia, just not nearly as loud, but if you get close enough, they’re a real treat to sniff. That’ll be a bit later though. In late summer those little trees put on a red fruit about the size of a bb that’s really tart but sweet.
Before long, there’ll be flocks of high-flying snow geese in endless v patterns – thousands of tiny white honking specks flowing across an indigo ocean, itself a beautiful marvel to behold. They know where they are headed – to fields away north. When they come through this area, they are usually so high up you can barely see them, but it’s worth the squint to watch and hear their show.
It won’t be long now and there’ll be several little spotted white-tail fawns wobbling around the woods, chasing mom for a bit of milk here and there, and curiously nibbling at new grass shoots. Daffodils and dandelions are already showing off – along with forsythia they are the first colors to appear in the spring.
Lots of trouble going on in the world of people these days, and I write about it, but there’s always a balance with good things created by God for us to enjoy, and I would be remiss not to mention the things for which we should be thankful. Spring is almost here. Get outside and breathe.