Column: Spring is my favorite season, until summer gets here

0

I talk to many who are not big fans of Ohio’s changing weather.

But I rarely meet anyone who doesn’t like spring.

Yes. Mother Nature’s fickle disposition drives me a bit goofy at times, too. Still, I don’t know if I could live the rest of my life in a place that didn’t offer more than couple weeks of all four seasons.

I had a friend who lived in Alabama, where they say they have four seasons, but it includes 11 months of summer and about 10 days each of spring, summer and fall.

Hawaii? It’s beautiful, but 12 months of gorgeous weather seems a bit boring to me.

Spring signifies the end of winter.

It’s also a gateway to summer, which means weather that changes daily, sometimes hourly.

I love that.

I’ve never personally experienced a tornado. But I’ve witnessed and written about the aftermath of damage caused by severe weather.

In that respect, this is a terrible time of year.

But the phenomena of weather fascinates me. The Weather Channel is a big favorite on my TV. I have at least three weather apps on my phone.

Spring wa breaking out all over Thursday on an early-morning drive from Galion to Mount Gilead. Everywhere I looked there was green.

To me, green means spring.

There were freshly mowed green lawns. There were steer hanging out in green pastures. Everywhere I looked there were green buds on trees. There were green flower stalks bursting out of the ground.

If you like to golf, the fairways and greens are as luscious and green as they will be throughout the entire golfing season.

Baseball season starts in the spring. Is there a more pleasant picture than green the diamond cuts on infields and outfields across this nation.

Also, green signifies new life. Not just plant growth, either. Spring means the arrival of warmer weather, which means more opportunities to get out and walk, play golf and, well, work in the yard.

Spring also signifies the start of the green season when it comes to cooking and eating.

I love fresh-cut and grilled, green asparagus. The thinner the better. Coated with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled for just a couple minutes, there is nothing better.

For decades, my dad would plant sugar snap peas for his wife (my mother) and his kids, grandchildren and great grandkids.

Before June ends, I also will dine on fresh lettuce, fresh green beans and fried green tomatoes.

My dad — up until a couple years ago — always put out a garden. It wasn’t easy. But he enjoyed it. And thanks to his hard work, his family enjoyed an ample supply of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and peppers.

The last three years we did some container gardening, mostly tomatoes. That adds up to less work, but fewer fresh tasty tomatoes.

Nick and Nate Eachus, the youngest of dad’s grandkids, enjoy hanging out with him. This year, there is a 4H garden project in the works and for the first time in three of four years, dad’s overgrown garden is getting some TLC. It has already been weeded and is ready to be tilled. In just a few weeks the planting will start.

And soon after that, the summer bounty will start to peak out of the soil.

I haven’t had pasta primavera in a long time. I don’t know that I’ve ever made it myself. But as I sit here today, I have a taste for it. Pasta in a light cream sauce spiked with green pesto, and lots of asparagus, green leaks and spring peas. That spells Spring.

I also like ramps. I don’t love them like some of my friends. Still, three or four nice meals with potatoes and eggs in the spring are delicious.

My supply of ramps always came from friends in West Virginia. Are there wild ramps in Crawford County?

Not all green is great in the spring.

Wet weather sometimes leads to standing water in fields and yards. If it stands long enough, it will be covered with green disgusting algae. Also, warm weather and wet weather means green mold on the sides of houses, barns and outbuildings, and on lawn furniture and on decks.

But that’s OK, it’s like the patina on copper.

Yes, spring is my favorite of Ohio’s four seaons … until summer, my next favorite season, comes around.

https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2019/04/web1_Russ-Kent-colsig.jpg

https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2019/04/web1_C9tWhBqXoAAPePD.jpg

Russ Kent

Galion Inquirer

Russ Kent is editor of the Galion Inquirer. Email him at [email protected].

No posts to display