Spring in the Midwest is fickle as a three-year-old child. Stuck in the convergence of weather systems swooping down from Canada and surging upward from the gulf coast of Texas the day can bring just about anything. Tulips covered in snow is not an unusual scene here. Until the season has officially changed and the jet stream makes up its mind which direction it wants to wander, it can do anything from snow to bathe us in 80 degrees and sun.
This year spring sprung like a broken wind up alarm clock. We arrived in early April to consistent upper 60’s and lower 70’s and sun more days than not. I was keeping my winter Texas tan, woodland flowers bloomed, birds I saw in Texas started to arrive, then just when I thought Iowa was really in the clear everything came unraveled. The sun went behind the clouds 5 days ago, and the ice water rain started falling from the sky. The last week of April here has been colder than the worst Texas had to offer in the ‘dead of winter’.
I have to keep reminding myself, ‘at least I didn’t have to endure an Iowa winter. The irony for me is, even when I faced winter each year spring was the season I dreaded most and apparently still do. As an avid gardener, one would think spring is my favorite season. Nothing could be further from the truth. I detest spring and its inability to make up its mind. Spring is like a bad high school boyfriend, every now and then it does something nice and you think you can trust it, then it turns away and acts like it was never there. We have talked about waiting a couple of weeks longer next year to come back but as evidenced this week, even late April isn’t entirely safe.
Our friends from Texas have arrived to see Iowa on its worst spring behavior. All the outdoor things I have planned will still likely happen but we won’t be in shorts and tee shirts. It will be hotter than blazes here soon, I keep telling myself. My skin will darken again and I’ll feel healthy and warm. It’s hard to accept that part of the reason Iowa is so lush and green with grass like thick shag carpeting and trees towering over 50 feet and shading an entire yard is this wet cool nastiness they call spring.
My cool weather vegetables growing in containers in front of my RV are hovering close to the dirt waiting for the sun to return. I’m hovering in my RV under my blanky waiting to turn the heat off. One thing for sure is I am thankful we have an indoor job at Saylorville. This is our weekend to work, at least we don’t have people coming in the Visitor’s Center telling us what nice weather we are missing. If it weren’t for the Mother’s Day pre-school craft booth I’m planning to have and all the prep that goes with it, I would have trouble staying awake at ‘work’ this weekend.
This coming week I’ll do my best to show our friends the real beauty of Iowa, warm up at the Iowa Tap Room with some tasty Iowa craft beer and Midwest comfort food, and maybe I’ll see my legs sticking out of shorts again soon. In the meantime I'll dream of summer.
[caption id="attachment_279" align="alignnone" width="165"]
Summer time on my boat[/caption]Until next time…
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