Winter paid a visit over the weekend.
A dusting of snow, temperatures well below shivering, ugly wind chills, roads slick enough to make a pickup fishtail.
In fact, Saturday morning I thought I saw Matthew McConaughey trying to ice fish in a pond across the road.
A few years ago I planted daffodils and tulips beneath the postoaks between the driveway and the creek, and this is the time of year I start trying to spot the green tops of their shoots poking through the soil.
Winter can be a sad time. The short days make it feel like we’re living in a refrigerator and waiting for someone to open the door for a few minutes.
And there are some days where the cold just seems to stick your skin. It takes a few hours of sipping coffee in front of the fireplace to make it let go.
Outdoor activities aren’t much fun and the monochromatic landscape always make me desperate to see a splash of color.
Enter the daffodils and tulips.
When I can see their shoots, I know that spring is more than just a date on a calendar - it’s actually going to happen, and fairly soon.
We usually get some unpleasant weather about the end of February. It’s winter’s way of holding on like a cat with its claws in your sweater.
We might get ice, booming north winds, skies like iron.
Once it blows past, though, the daffodils and tulips bloom.
“Boom!” as John Madden used to say. Spring will be right around the corner, with winter just a bad memory, like that burrito you had for lunch on Tuesday.
Just think what’s ahead - peach blossoms, green grass, cold watermelon in the shade. Hawaiian shirts. Lemonade on ice and burgers on the grill.
Just thinking about spring warms the temperature a few degrees and makes the cold a little easier to bear.
We all know the seasons come and go because of the earth’s tilt and the way we spin around the sun, but if you are inclined to find a message behind the mechanics, maybe it’s that we need signs of hope that let us know that better times are ahead.
Signs like daffodils and tulips.