WHAT IS IT ABOUT SPRING?


Is there something extra-special about this season?

Why not winter? People who love to ski and snowboard and sled and ice fish look forward to winter with fervor and impatience.

And summer--most kids I knew growing up couldn't wait for summer vacation. The tiny minority (me and three other kids) suffered until it was time to buy back-to-school clothes and shoes and pencils and tablets.

You'd think autumn would be the season I long for because it's my favorite. But here in the northeast corner of Indiana autumn doesn't seem to last long enough to register as a season. There are never enough autumn days to satisfy me.

But spring--what does spring mean for us?

An end to winter . . . yes, we look forward (some of us) to an end to predictions of multi-inch snowfalls, complete with freezing rain. We've grown weary of dressing in so many layers that it takes fifteen minutes to put them on and at least that long to get them off wherever it is that we're going. (More than once I've said the-hell-with-it and stayed home.) Leftover piles of snow that apparently aren't ever going to melt . . . cloudy skies . . . tiny breezes that ramp up just as I'm opening the front door to get the mail . . . .

What else does spring bring?

A beginning for new life--plants poke their heads above ground to test the air temp. Baby animals are born/hatched to start the cycle of life once more.

Beautification of roadside, yard, park--any place that hosts trees, shrubs, bushes, flower beds.

Warmer temps, you say? Those are a come-and-go proposition around here. Warm and sunny one day, cool and sunny the next. Then warm and cloudy (aka muggy), cool and cloudy (fog). If you want consistently warm days, you might want to emigrate farther south.

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Clearly the subject isn't open for debate, campaigning, or voting. Spring is what spring is. Spring comes when she comes. All my wishing and wanting, my ranting and railing, won't change the time or place or character of spring.

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Like you--like nearly everyone else--I'm ready, willing, and eager for spring to whisk in and change my days. 

Since this will be another long-ish wait (March 19th is the spring equinox), I'm trying to control my impatience. Hope you can do the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We've just had January (6 family birthdays) and now we're working on February (2 family, 2 friends). 

If you don't have any b-days to celebrate this month, remember there's Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12th and George Washington on Feb. 22nd. Or you can combine them into one grand President's Day, Monday, Feb. 17th. And if you're really in a party mood--celebrate all of 'em!

Here are some thoughts I gathered to entertain you while you're waiting for your own big day:

From Eleanor Roosevelt:

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

From Pablo Picasso, some food for thought:

It takes a long time to become young.

More food for thought

Do you sing on your birthday? Do you serenade other people with "Happy Birthday"? In our family we call the Birthday Person and sing to them. Unless we have a bad cold, of course.

Ella should know.

And for a little light-hearted approach:

Erma Bombeck:

A friend never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday.

George Burns:

At my age flowers scare me.

And finally, some sage advice from a man who probably learned from painful experience:

He wrote great poetry, too.

Whenever your Big Day occurs, celebrate it! Remember, there's only one of you around--everybody else was taken.

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If you can't get out for a store-bought cake, here's a wonderful (easy) home-made variety:

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch pan.

Mix together:

   2 c. flour

   1 c. sugar

   1/4 c. cocoa

   2 tsp. baking soda

   1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

   1 c. water (or cold coffee)

   1 c. real mayonnaise

   1 tsp. vanilla

Beat 2 minutes. Spread in pan and bake 30-35 minutes.

You can also bake this in layers or a Bundt pan. Time required will be different.

Note: This cake was allegedly created by the wife of a Hellman's sales rep during WW II, when eggs and butter were often scarce. (Maybe the hens and cows went off and enlisted?) Anyway, it may also have been around during the Great Depression (approx. 1929-1941). I grew up with it in the '50s. Tastes as good now as then!