SPRING LANDSCAPE

The frigid weather of early spring, after a last Hurrah! this last weekend for "blackberry winter," is finally giving way to warmer temperatures that hint at the summer months ahead.

My house is a disaster. The two college boys are home from campus, their dorm equipment, linens, etc. piled in boxes and laundry baskets in the living room. Nate began sorting through some of that mountain yesterday, and we hope to have most of it packed in storage boxes and relocated to the attic by the end of the week.

In my room, plastic storage tubs dominate the landscape. Winter coats are washed and packed away, along with gloves, toboggans, and scarves. These are also in queue for a trip to the attic. Then there are the boxes of summer things, which we will be unpacking and sorting through in the days ahead. Maybe, if we are very industrious, we will actually find the floor before the end of the week - I haven't mopped in a month and things are getting rather nasty underfoot.

Like the interior landscape, the out-of-doors is undergoing a seasonal transition, too. Three months ago, I could look out the living room window and see horses and cows dotting the hillside way out behind the red barn. Now, a wall of living green has shortened my view to only a few yards...green leaves, dancing and rustling in the wind, hide everything in the fields beyond.

Yesterday, I hiked back to the Three Sisters. The creek, carved into new curves by the recent rains, whispers and burbles over gravel shoals. In the pastures, brown stubble has given way to thigh-high grass. Yes, the blackberry brambles are covered with white blossoms - and the honeysuckle and cane are in full bloom, too.

Everywhere, there are birds, birds, birds. Snowy egrets around the pond, herons at the creek. Sunshine yellow finches and jewel-bright indigo buntings, orioles, robins, field sparrows. Walking late in the day, I hear two hoots owls booming round deep notes back and forth overhead.

The farm is redecorating for summer.