Ah Spring. Just saying your name is like a golden promise rolling off the tongue. You give us Iowans such joy, such hope. You are that lifeline cast down from Heaven saying “here you go Iowa, all is not lost.”
If you have never wintered in Iowa then you have no idea how much spring means to most of us. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love winter. However, an Iowa winter can mean almost half a year of icy cold air, snow, freezing rain, strong winds coming down from Canada, or a mixture of everything in one day. Our winter season can start as early as late October and run all the way to the end of March with many cold, sunless days in between. Humans can only stand so much.
Just when you wonder if your body temperature will ever be above thirty-four degrees again, and the air temperature above zero, along comes a forty degree sunny day to say “fear not, spring cometh soon!”
Next the Robins begin to appear on your lawn and that doesn’t mean we won’t have more snow and cold or even a March blizzard, but it does mean hope. Robins are smart birds who only migrate back to Iowa when they know spring is coming.
Another sure sign is if you own a dog who is of a breed that sheds it’s winter fur, you have a sign of spring all over your house, all over your car, all over your clothes. Huskies are one and my Shar-pei Jazzy is another one, who blow their winter coats. It is an ongoing process of brushing them outdoors and vacuuming up after them indoors that can last for weeks.
It means that for weeks all of your clothes have lots of dog fur on them, I call it a pet fashion statement. I toss all the discarded fur outside in a spot that the birds can pick up and use if they’d like to. Nothing better than a warm furry nest in early spring to keep my feathered friends toasty.
Groundhog day is supposed to tell us if it will be a long winter or a short one and if spring is close. I don’t believe that the weather in Iowa ever listens to groundhogs. Iowa winters tend to be at least five months long leaving spring and fall with about a month and a half each and summer gets all the rest. I hate summer by the way. If we could just have winter, spring and fall I’d be a happy camper. If summer would never rise above seventy-two degrees, then I’d be cool with summer as well.
Iowa summers are like Iowa winters in reverse. In the winter we may have minus thirty degrees with twenty mile an hour winds giving us some ridiculous wind chill that takes a mathematician to figure out. In the summer we may have ninety degrees above zero with one hundred percent humidity giving us a ridiculous heat index that also requires a mathematician. It’s absurd.
In the winter it’s wind chills, freezing rain,snow and blizzards. In the summer it’s heat, rain, humidity and tornadoes. So really fall and spring are the only two decent seasons in Iowa and some years they only last a week or two despite what the calendar may say.
Winter is also a time of what we call “dry heat” or “dry air” which leads to constant static electricity. Your hair is flying all over, your clothes are clinging, you get shocks every time you touch anything. In the summer it’s the opposite, too much humidity means everything feels damp, your hair curls into little ringlets, water runs off of you constantly even when you are sitting still.
Each year I hope for a long spring season, the birds all arrive back from wherever they waited out winter, new nests are being built, animals and little creatures everywhere are making new families. It’s a time of renewal and hope and new beginnings. The sun is warmer, the winds are often kinder and gentler, the rains are refreshing and not life threatening storms. Welcome spring, we’ve missed you!
Until next time…
Toni