Pifferello: Spring is here

I am so ready for spring that has finally arrived. In preparation, I have painted flowers. They’re not created in a realistic style, but one in which I had fun with interpretation. I hope the essence is illustrated. Our pond partially thaws each day, then freezes over most nights. The Canada geese couple have returned. They are optimistic. Some years they have kids. Other years they don’t. The goslings look like New Zealand Kiwi birds when they are very small. One year the couple had seven. They all disappeared before they were grown. We have coyotes and fox and snapping turtles ... no end of predators. One year the couple raised three to adulthood, though even that is speculation, as we watched Mom and Dad leave often and the little ones seemed mostly on their own. One day we watched Mom fly by the bedroom window, and immediately she was followed on foot by three squawking young ones. They ran east in her direction and disappeared. We thought we had seen the last of them, but later that day they were back. Mom and Dad finally disappeared one day never to return. For another month or so, the kids practiced flying across the yard, across the pond. Then they were gone, too. Spring is my favorite time of year when plants are sprouting and trees are leafing. Birds are singing and mating. There’s just so much promise in springtime that isn’t evident in other seasons.