That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs – L.M. Montgomery, author (1874-1942)

Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat – Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (1867-1957)

Taking a little walk on the edge of downtown Columbus, it was noticeable azaleas were showing their vivid colors. Azaleas are beautiful flowering shrubs. There’s at least six varieties and I’m sure all of them are beauties. Azaleas don’t usually do well in the prairie. I’ve seen just a few occasionally planted in flowerbeds alongside prairie homes where they seem to thrive. It was only a few weeks ago we experienced unusual cold spells. The black cherry tree had already put on a show of the tiny white blossoms. The weatherman had predicted a chance we might have a short snowfall. That morning, I looked out the window only to see tiny white flurries. It was difficult to determine whether it was truly snow flurries or the black cherry blossoms scattering. The blossoms stayed for a while and by the next day blossoms were covered with butterflies. Somehow, they had managed to make it through the cold and were feeding from the blossoms. Two of the butterflies were swallowtails, one was yellow with few black spots, and another mostly black with small touches of blue and orange. Even looking over my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies, I couldn’t be sure, but they were all lovely and welcomed.

Then came another change. The days warmed and the sun came out. The white blossoms of the black cherry tree were gone and tiny green leaves popped out in its place. In fact, as I looked around, leaves were coming out everywhere, oak trees, ash trees, cedars and pines had held on. Green grass was growing which indicated it would be time for mowing around the house and bush hogging the fields. Due to the strong winds earlier sticks and limbs had fallen nearly everywhere. That brought the next project to keep everything back where it needed to be. Day after day we picked up sticks and limbs across the fields and yard and hauled them out to the burn pile. Come fall we’ll all be ready for a bonfire. 

Out by the lake where the swamp iris grow, only the green leaves had been ringing around the edge of the lake but recently out popped the yellow swamp iris flowers. Those wildflowers can be found in wet areas, flat woods, pastures, roadside ditches, marshes, and swamps. The swamp irises return every year and often last from March to May. 

And so, this is a good season to take care of and enjoy all the beauty outside and around you, whether just a walk and noticing what you might have missed in a rush. The garden centers are stocking up. Flowers, trees, and nature are essential to human life, offering vital benefits like producing oxygen, purifying air, lowers noise pollution, reducing stress, and improving mental health says “The xerces.org.” Enjoy.

Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].