Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.
~ Lewis Grizzard
Today, on the Vernal Equinox, I feel the sun’s warmer kiss already. Springtime is the eternal optimist of the seasons. A time of hope, when the Earth awakens and the outdoors blooms right before our eyes. But, please March, why are you so darn blustery?
Some weatherdudes made it clearer – it is windy in March because of the increased atmospheric instability caused by the increasingly strong sunshine. This heats the earth’s surface and since warm air is lighter than cold air, the air rises. This process results in more “mixing” of the air, which tends to bring down the stronger winds from the upper atmosphere.
This makes complete sense. The sun is ready for summer, but winter still has a hold on the earth. No wonder the lioness that is March cannot go away quietly. She is doing her job to wake up the earth with her windy yawning. Living and working on the Chester River means double the wind for me every day. I need to go buy some hairspray.
March is also the month when we lose an hour of sleep. Daylight savings time is my favorite eight months of the year when we make better use of natural daylight. Created by Congress in 1918 as a “way of conserving fuel needed for war industries and of extending the working day” (Library of Congress), it was repealed after World War I and re-established in 1942 during World War II. Four months of standard time does nothing but make us cranky, so I am glad to be heading into spring. A time change, a full Worm moon, a lunar eclipse and St. Patrick’s Day all within a week has played a little havoc with my internal clock.
The best news of the past week, however, is that our ospreys are home – both at my house and at school. Like clockwork, our resident river hawks arrive in their nests around St. Patrick’s Day. I went to bed that night wondering where on their journey the ospreys were, only to wake up and find them sitting in their nest on the morning of the 18th. They have some work to do! The March winds, and a few windy winter storms, have ravaged their nest. They are out looking for sticks as we speak.
Here’s to our osprey’s return and March winds. The earth is waking up.
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