JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This past week I was staying at my sister Barb’s house in the DC area. She and her husband are celebrating their 25th anniversary and a landmark birthday with a trip to Greece (which also doubles as a visit with their youngest son, a student at the University of Athens.) They have three, shall we say, unique dogs with unusual temperaments and needs, and they asked if I could dog- and house-sit while they were away.
I was happy to, because my sister is the bomb-diggity and it’s nice to be able to do something sweet for her. But also, like many folks residing in northern climes, I LOVE getting out of Maine in March.
March is the WORST month in the northeast, bar none. At this point, we are all just so damn tired of winter. So. Damn. Tired. Yes, temperatures are trending upward. (It hit 40F/5C yesterday, woo hoo!) Yes, the snow is melting, turning everything not covered in stone or asphalt into a mucky mire. No, I don’t have to leave the water trickling overnight like I did in January and February.
But it’s been almost three months since Christmas. The excitement from seeing beautiful snow flakes falling has become an existential dread. The once-new woolly sweaters and boots feel like penitential garb. Sitting close to the woodstove has gone from cozy to claustrophobic.
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| Kingsley doesn't like March either |
And as the snow slowly, slowly melts, the revealed landscape is all brown and gray - dirt scraped up from the road, dead grass, sodden trees. We still have two more weeks before the earliest colors - our ubiquitous forsythia. A good month before the daffodils and narcissus.
Meanwhile, in Alexandria, it’s in the fifties, and the sun is shining. The grass is greening, and the daffodils and visible in people’s gardens. The flowering trees and shrubs that make the DC area such a wonderland in spring aren’t in blossom yet, but the signs of life are everywhere. I wear sneakers while walking her (weird little) dogs. Sneakers! I haven’t worn anything except boots or slippers in four months. I go coatless on the morning walk - although admittedly, this is me being a Maine resident for most of my life. Everyone else I see walking their dogs has at least a windbreaker on.
So it’s been great getting away for week. Just that small taste of spring gives me the strength to carry on through mud season. How about you, dear readers? What’s the worst month where you live, and how to you power through it?
