Spring has been cancelled

[By Marcia Milner-Brage in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA]

  This is an official complaint. Yesterday, it snowed again. It was the fourth all-day snowfall since the start of April. And it’s cold. Spring has gone AWOL. This is bad for my winter-weary soul. I’m tired of pulling on a wool hat and mittens and having to zipper up. This is not right.

This is not usual. April in Iowa can be rainy and cool, with an occasional snow flurry that melts as soon as it hits the ground. But this April it’s been snowy and frigid. Usually, by now my crocuses will have bloomed and croaked. The grape hyacinth will be filling my back garden with a blue carpet. Daffodils will be congregating in clusters amongst the ground cover. And early tulips will be lined up like gumdrops against the low stone wall. Nope, not this April.

The robins arrived two weeks ago. Usually they’re hopping about on lawns that are turning green, pulling worms from the soil. Not this year, the ground is still frozen solid. Concerned citizens of Cedar Falls have advised we all put crumbled suet out for them as an emergency food source.

A friend commented, “Isn’t the fresh snow pretty? So fluffy and white.”

       “No, it’s not.”, I responded in my best Scrooge inflection. In November and December and January, even March, snow can be beautiful. But in April, I can’t see the beauty of it. I’m starved for green.

So, yesterday I drew the snow covered intersection of 11th and Clay from my second floor bedroom window, attempting to put a good face on a dismal situation. This year, this is what April in Iowa looks like.