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| Fairview Bluff overlooking the Refuge |
Winter left the Fairview Bluff four days after its last blast of blizzard. Melted away in snow turned to rain. That was two weeks ago but we’re still looking for spring. What we see from our vantage on the Fairview Bluff is that winter white has given way to early spring brown. Still dormant wetlands, dormant grass, dormant trees, dormant rock garden, dormant orchard. No green in the woods, no green in the birches, no green in the lawn. I keep looking for that filmy green haze that shows up one morning when the birches leaf out but it hasn’t happened yet.
The birds are the real signs of spring. A few days ago I was basking in the 50 degree warmth on the deck when I was startled out of my lounging by the raucous noise of the gulls, back from wherever they wintered over, down close to the ocean but working there way towards us. I don’t know of anything that grips me with the same intense nostalgia as the sea gulls. I can almost smell the ocean, feel the warm sand, the beach. Alaska's one failing, no ocean beaches. Beautiful clean ocean water but too cold to swim in. I don’t know where the gulls go in winter, probably southeast Alaska somewhere, but when they come back it’s spring. A few days after the gulls a flock of swans treated us to a flyby. They always show up before the ice is out on the lakes then hang around waiting for it to melt. Like us waiting for green. Next came the Canadas high overhead in there telltale vees with their telltale honks. Yesterday we were excited to see a pair of sandhill cranes fly over distinguished by their long legs sticking out the back. We were at an Easter party a few doors down the bluff and everyone shared in the excitement which says something about our common desire for spring. I may love winter but the earth has decided it’s time to shift gears. We haven’t heard the cranes calling yet so the full contingent probably hasn’t arrived. And no robins. Meanwhile the chickadees are singing their hearts out and a pair of downy woodpeckers are definitely up to something.
Garden variety Alaskans don’t wait for green. They just act as if. Most everyone involved in gardening by this time have their indoor seeds started which is pretty much everything. Few things can wait to be sown outside because we have such a short growing season. Dan has at least six flats of vegetables, annuals and perennials under the grow lights. His pushing-the-envelope choice this year is sunchokes. We’ll see. His hanging baskets, fuchsia and geraniums, stored from last year have come to life. I keep meaning to ask him what happened to the begonias. They make a beautiful display on the shaded front walk.
This morning I went for a walk around the gardens looking to see what I could see and found little red bumps below the rhubarb mulch, always the first to come up. Buds on the honeyberry bushes are fat and red as are buds on the wild roses. The arctic sunroses in the rock garden are doing something and the iris in the perennial bed are awake too. Spring is here. You just have to look close.