Friday, February 26, 2010

Lullaby of Spring

February though it is, spring is well underway in the Pacific Northwest. No need to feel envious, thought, if you're still blanketed by winter in the east; when the moutain snows stop this early here, it usually means we pay for it eventually with a summer drought.

Meanwhile, though, THIS is the kind of spring (even if it is months too soon) that makes me love this corner of the world. Water drips from everywhere; the rustle of rain is a constant underscore; the insistent bright green of first leaves is just starting to appear, like they're attempting to gauge the weather. It's a beautiful but somber sort of a spring -- not the delirium of, say, D.C.'s cherry trees or SoCal's wild poppies -- but I prefer this. The triumph of mushrooms, moss, hellebores, particolored lichens, newts and banana slugs.

Cascadia's spring is perfectly captured by this ancient (1967) song by Donovan Leitch.

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