By DENNIS MAGEE

The mechanics of it all are fairly mundane. Earth tilts on its axis. The northern hemisphere leans into the sun’s warmth. Daylight hours increase.

A marvelous series of events, however, begins in spring, inspiring poets, farmers and those with the soul of both.

Vernon Johnson raised crops in rural Dike. His favorite season has always been the one that banishes cold and offers promise.

“It just changes you,” he says. “You get out and work that first soil. It just does something to you, the smell of freshly worked earth.”

Johnson, 95 and long retired, never minded early season tasks.

“Your work that you do in the spring is a pleasure after a long, hard winter.”

He and his wife, Irma, made time to enjoy the earth’s renewal, even during a farmer’s busiest weeks. One of their favorite outings included a visit to a specific field near New Hartford.

“We used to stop there and just walk up and down the road,” Vernon says.

A particular kind of wildflower attracted the couple like a pair of butterflies each spring.

“The bluebells, I tell you, were solid.”

Vernon and Irma were married 68 years, portions of a fair few dedicated to landscaping improvements around their home.

“My wife would see some kind of flower, and she would have to have them.”

Vernon even tried transplanting the wild bluebells. But the situation on his property never mirrored what nature provided every year, and in time he was traveling alone.

Irma died in 2001. In the spring. Vernon returned to the bluebells anyway.

“I still did. We both loved flowers.”

He keeps photos of Irma on a table at the Cedar Falls Lutheran Home. They are surrounded by fresh blooms and aging memories.

Vernon enjoys a good conversation. His thoughts return frequently to rural Iowa in the early part of the year.

A green hillside with stock cows grazing near newborn calves. Rows of corn just tall enough to notice.

“That is a beautiful sight. And then you get a shower of rain and you could not believe how much they grew,” he says.

Waterlogged

Tom Daniels lives along Greenwood Avenue in Waterloo. Depending on the year and season, his property is either a few feet above the level of the Cedar River — or a few feet below. Wednesday, Daniels’ lot was a few inches below.

“We’ve got water in our yard. But it’s never been in the house.”

His statement is holding so far in 2007 and is true for every previous year back to 1993 when Daniels first bought the place. The fact the house, like all those hugging the river, sits atop 8-foot concrete block walls helps.

Daniels says residents must accept that high water comes with addresses along his street. Which means making some adjustments, particularly as winter fades into spring.

“When we have to, we canoe in and out.”

For Daniels, the inconvenience mars an otherwise idyllic setting only slightly.

“When it’s not flooding, you can’t ask for a nicer place to live,” he says.

Spring fling

Most retailers depend on the holiday rush in November and December to make budgets balance — unless they primarily sell plants, seeds and gardening supplies. Then, the season for making green arrives not long after the vernal equinox in March.

“May 1 to mid-June. Until about Father’s Day,” says Renee Franz, manager at Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Cedar Falls.

Planning, though, begins much earlier.

“As soon as spring ends the year before,” Franz says.

Orders placed months earlier have poured into the store since February.

“It’s like Christmas every day when the trucks come,” Franz says.

The majority of Earl May’s plant stocks will arrive Monday, however, hopefully after the final threat of frost. Which would be nice since employees already had to shuffle tender merchandise around once this year when the mercury dipped.

“We had it out and had to bring it all back in,” Franz says.

On the other end of the thermometer, rising temperatures encourage business.

“When it was 70 degrees, that was probably our busiest day. Everybody has spring fever,” assistant manager Robyn Knapp says.

Given the recent flurry of concern about the global warming theory, Franz thinks 2007 might be remembered as a particularly green year. All the environmental talk may translate into more tree plantings than usual, she says. Ongoing trends in “outdoor living,” which include durable all-weather furniture and related furnishings that look at home in a living room, also may drive sales this spring.

Franz and Knapp are more than administrators. They also enjoy their yards and gardens.

“Oh, no. We get dirty. Want to see my fingernails?” Knapp asks.

Deeper meaning

There is no denying the change of season is welcome by a winter weary crowd.

“People get excited about spring,” the Rev. Gary Olson says.

He is chaplain at the Cedar Falls Lutheran Home and serves a population with more experience than most turning calendar pages.

“They delight in hearing that people have seen their first robin. … They comment about the signs of spring.”

In Olson’s own memory, the transition conjures memories, too.

“I grew up on a farm, so for me, springtime means planting, sowing, the rebirth of nature,” he says.

Buds coming out … tulips blooming … birds returning to nests …

“These are all signs of God’s handiwork in nature,” Olson adds.

All of which fits in nicely with his understanding of the Scriptures.

“Jesus used images from nature,” he says.

He quotes Psalm 19:1 — “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” and refers to Matthew 6. Verse 28 reads: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin … ”

For Christians, though, spring represents more.

The term “Lent” is drawn from an Old English word “lencten,” which means spring. Lent is the 40 days beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending at midnight Saturday during Holy Week. The following Sunday is Easter, the holiday that defines Christian beliefs.

“Death does not have the last word,” Olson says.

Spring and the rebirth it brings remind everyone of that lesson, he adds, a metaphor of something bigger on the horizon.

“We can live in hope.”

Contact Dennis Magee at (319) 291-1451 or dennis.magee@wcfcourier.com.

via : www.wcfcourier.com

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