SUSAN SAYS: March winds bring musings

— February was a short month, made a bit longer by this year’s leap day, and I sort of hated to see it go as it was filled with fun activities.

A high school classmate visited the office and brought a batch of her delicious red velvet cupcakes and about a week later her sister arrived with the gift of a lovely afghan she had crocheted. Jim took me out for breakfast every Saturday and for a special Valentine’s Day meal. At mid-month sister Nancy and I enjoyed a trip to Walton Arts Center to see Loretta Lynnin concert, and a couple of days later I was invited to hear several area musicians jam at a local cafe. The Hogs even managed to win a road game during the month!

Now March has arrived and, considering the blustery winds we experienced the first few days, I guess we’d have to say it came in like a lion. March is notoriously a fickle month, can’t seem to make up its mind. When the wind whistles around the corner of the house, blowing all the cushions off the porch furniture, and you can’t decidewhether to toss another log on the fire or shut off the heat entirely, you know it’s March. Spring flowers are popping out one day, the birdbath has a thin glaze of ice the next. But somewhere in the mixed signals we find the fleeting promise of the approaching spring.

Columnist Jo Northrop wrote a piece several years ago called “Merry March Winds” in which she described the joys of kite flying in March, but she agreed that was only one of its pleasures. “The month behaves like both the lion and the lamb,” she said, “chilling us one day and warming us the next. On the cold days we build a gentle fire and enjoy a clove-scented cup of tea .... When it’s too blustery for kite-flying, we are pleased to know the wind is drying the earth for planting and scatteringthe seeds of wildflowers for future crops. As the weather warms, we delight in smelling the rich scent of drying soil.”

We’ve had such a mild winter the warm weather has encouraged the early blooming of several flowers. Perky yellow daffodils have been blooming several weeks and now buds are appearing on the hyacinths. Our spirea and japonica bushes are blossoming, and the lovely Bradford pear trees our neighbors planted across the street are beginning their annual show. Several seed catalogs have arrived in the mail and Jim’s already wondering who we’ll get to plow the garden spot.

My sisters visited on Friday afternoon and we sorted through some more of our mother’s things. Both found some pictures, letters and othermementos they wanted and both took some of the intricately stitched quilts. We browsed through Mama’s jewelry box and the small drawers of her dresser and found pretty pins, beads and earrings, reminiscing about the lady who spent a lifetime collecting these lovely things. Each of us girls has a chair with a seat skillfully caned by Uncle Edd, and Mary Alice chose to take her chair home.

March is the birthday month of Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847), Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1764) and, in our family, my niece’s two boys and my brotherin-law. It’s also the birth month of the Girl Scouts, started March 12, 1912. We’ve been enjoying the Girl Scout cookies we ordered from granddaughter Alyssa and I bought a couple moreboxes Saturday from the booth they had set up in the Walmart parking lot.

The March day which is perhaps celebrated the most is not a birthday but the day of a death - St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. St. Patrick is revered as the patron saint of Ireland where he is celebrated by the “wearin’ of the green.” He founded over 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 persons. And then there’s the tale about how he charmed the snakes out of Ireland. Supposedly he was such an attractive fellow the snakes followed him right down to the seashore where they slipped off into the ocean and were drowned!

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

News, Pages 6 on 03/07/2012