The Waiting Month finally ended. The yard and garden were quiet.
When my little sister said maybe she could come take a tour, there was really nothing much to see. "Just a patch of hope here, and a patch of wishes there," I told her.
But as the days slowly got longer and the temperatures warmer, things began to wake up from the winter sleep.
By March 7, the cereal rye/hairy vetch cover crop had grown a couple of inches.
One of the catkins on the American Hazelnut opened and released little puffs of pollen every time the wind breathed on it.
The tiny red pom-pom female flowers, open since February, would finally be pollinated.
On March 11, the first blossom opened on the little peach tree.
On March 21, the first queen bumblebee made her appearance.
On March 22, a single bloom opened on the Bing cherry tree.
And all of the tiny pink flowers on the redbud trees were beginning to open.
And all of the flower clusters on the male sassafras tree were fully opened up.
Fuzzy shoots of Butterfly Milkweed were poking through the ground by March 29.
And by March 31, the little Gala apple was covered in pink-white sweet-smelling flowers.
And the cereal rye/hairy vetch cover crop?
The plants that were about ankle high at the beginning of March are now up to my waist, and sway back and forth in the wind.
What a beautiful thing it is to witness the arrival of spring. But a word of warning...if you blink, you'll miss it.
The Waking Month has already ended.
