by
Jean Hughes
April 3, 1995

Beware of Spring Fever! It's catching! One big lungful of April air and you are in for a two-month siege. You will be compelled to take walks and have picnics. As if by magic, garden tools, fishing poles and kite strings will appear in your hands. You will be pulled to hillsides covered with velvet-white bloodroots, pink and purple hepaticas, little rose-like isopyrum, lavender bittercress and tiny pink and white spring beauties.

But the real telltale sign of the fever is that exuberance of spirit, that feeling of spring joy that races from head to toe, that carefree, unexplainable, dazzling dizziness of the heart.

I dash outside at every opportunity to let the spring soak in. I run to the little brooks where the catkins of pussy willows shine like silver in the sunlight. I wade in the water and listen to it sing. Oh, this wonderful season when, day by day, the beautiful waits in line.

* * *
Today, I find the hillsides rampant with snow trilliums. They are scattered like pearls thrown from a benevolent hand. Which they are.

I lean against a steep hillside where I can look the trilliums right in the petals. Then comes to me that perfume that is always a shock -- the fragrance of new-thawed woods soil -- the essence of spring.

Could this be the aroma that wakens the groundhog from his sleep and makes rabbits skip about? Does this sweet scent cause birds to sing mating songs and frogs to jump from their muddy beds? Does it penetrate to our lazy bones?


We dye a lot of Easter eggs and use them after the Easter egg hunts for creamed eggs, deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches. I use my mother's recipe for salad dressing. Substitutions may be made to lower the fat and sugar content, if desired.

Cooked Salad Dressing
Beat together for 2 minutes at medium speed: 2 cups water,
4 eggs, 1 cup vinegar, 3 t. dry mustard, 1 t. salt, 3/4 cup flour 
and 1 1/2 cups sugar.
Stirring constantly and vigorously, cook the mixture over
medium heat until thickened and boiling,
Cool, covered with plastic wrap.
Store in the refrigerator. Makes 1 qt.

When the winds of spring catch this awakening-earth bouquet, the earth knows joy unbounded. Spring peepers yell "peep, peep, peep" at the top of their lungs. Jew's-harp frogs twang from the roadside ditches. Soft maples unfurl their buds. Sumac torches glow in the spring sunshine. Birds call incessantly. And I cannot stay out of the woods.

This morning, a friend's young son and I walk together to the bog, where there is a hillside covered with flowers. There has been a light snow, and although, yesterday, the blossoms stood with their faces shining in the sun, now they are nodding and frozen, but still beautiful. A little sun and they will open again. Wildflowers are tough.

The boy points out snowflakes on a spider web, and then runs up the hillsides, looking for more. I've walked a lot with this child. He usually does a lot of running, and I have wondered if he heard or saw anything. But now he has begun to show me beautiful things I would not have seen. He is a wonderful companion in the woods. He is always enthusiastic and never complains.

Walking up the hill to home, we count 20 cedar waxwings in a tree and find more spider webs that are dusted with snow. They look like Queen Anne's lace blossoms.

* * *
Today, April is sweet -- a little rain, a little shine. Every plant is pulling against gravity. Sap is running uphill. Although I cannot see or feel it, the whole earth is pulsing and throbbing, working to cover itself with flowers and leaves.

At my window sill, a nuthatch picks up a piece of sunflower seed, flips it into the air, catches it in his beak, then flies to a tree and lands upside-down. I realize I am not the only one with a spring-tipped heart. There is a wild spring feeling that cannot be denied. It is April, rejoicing in every living thing, and in me.

Sweet, sweet April!

Copyright 1995, Jean Hughes.

Jean's book of ramblings and recipes "A Country Mile of Winter" and her book of poetry "The Earth's My Home" are available for $4.95 each plus $1.30 for postage and handling. Her nature letter "Diary of a Back Yard Naturalist", published 5 times yearly, is available for $12.50 per year. Ten of Jean's favorite recipes will be included free with each book or nature letter ordered. Order from...

Country Mile Publications
616 E. Monroe St.
Delphi, Indiana 46923

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