Yes, we have turned over the moist soil of our gardens, readying them for the plants and seeds to be inched down into the fertile dirt. Our irises, daffodils and tulips are stunning and the tiny white pearl wort flowers cover every inch of our lawn. Our pastures are magnificently dressed in the bright yellow buttercups.
One week we had an abundantly blooming field of daffodils: Jetfire, Jack Snipe, Sorbet, Romance, just to name a few of these delightful flowers.
Then “Mother Nature” decided we were not quite finished with Old Man Winter.
The next day all the beautiful heads of the blossoms were drooping and turning brown on the edges. My husband and I have forever tried to rush spring’s entrance. We already have Texas sweet onions and many cabbages embedded into the cool black loam of our garden patches.
We have always had a severe case of “spring fever.”
This is a term applied to several sets of physical and psychological symptoms associated with spring. Season is from Latin meaning sowing or seedtime, so we plant. The birds are more vocal and the honey bees swarm more during this time of year. Everything is waking up from a cold winter with naked trees, brown grass, dried sticks where flowers once grew and mud, so much mud from early spring rains. The world seems to have taken on a new personality going from dismal to jubilant. The “Jesus Trees,” dogwoods are in full bloom and Easter is just around the corner.
As a child and as an adult, I have always looked forward to the Easter season. It has always been as if the world is in sync, Jesus rising and the world waking up and all the new growth rising up from the ground.
The fish in our lake behind our house have begun to jump and play in the cool waters. Our grandchildren have readied their rods and reels and gathered bait to “feed” the bream and crappie as they pull them into the bank. Last year’s high count was 240 fish caught in a day by two of my grandsons and a friend of theirs. They are ready to break that record this year.
If you too, have that condition of “spring fever,” remember we need to slow down until Mother Nature declares us a frost free zone.
This is my “stand by” if I need a quick dessert and especially if the cake you bake falls apart. Just tear it up and make a Trifle.
Strawberry Trifle
One 10” Angel food cake (baked or bought)
2 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese
8 oz whipped topping
1 quart of fresh sliced strawberries
one 18 oz jar of strawberry glaze
Crumble part of cake into the bottom of a trifle bowl.
Beat cream cheese and sugar together and fold in topping.
Mix strawberries and glaze.
Press cream cheese mixture over cake and then strawberry mixture, repeat.
Add fresh strawberries on top.
