It’s week #2 of Sophia’s Friendly Friday Challenge: In the Garden and she’s asked us about the first signs of spring. As I’ve bemoaned before, I don’t have much to show about gardens and here in the Great White North, spring comes a little later than most.
Truth be told, celebrating spring is learned behaviour for me. I grew up in Jamaica where there was only one season: Sunny. The day always started when the sun popped up and ended when it popped down. I say ‘popped’ because that was the duration of the sunrises and sunsets. Maybe I exaggerate. It is true though, that being so close to the equator, the daylight hours were pretty constant, with sunsets lasting only twenty four minutes, all year long.
For me then (and now), the first sign of spring is St. Patrick’s Day. The St. Patrick’s Day BBQ and Bingo was the major fund-raiser for the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who ran my school. Until recently, I never questioned why we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. The Sisters were from the US and St. Patrick was only one of the many saints that we learned about. I suspect that the town of their motherhouse, Allegany, New York must have had some Irish roots. Regardless, for me St. Patrick’s Day will forever be associated with BBQ’d chicken, baked macaroni & cheese and bingo.
In Toronto, I was reminded of St. Patrick’s Day by this cartoon. If you aren’t familiar with St. Patrick you can follow the link for more background. Or you can just enjoy the laugh.
So what about you? Have you seen the first signs of spring? Or to be geo-meteorologically correct, have you seen the first signs of a change in seasons? What does it look like in your part of the world?
The Sandy Chronicles 
There are definite signs of spring in London, with our street trees starting to blossom and more flowers out in the parks. And we were in Soho on the evening of St Patrick’s Day, after a visit to the cinema, and there were plenty of people out celebrating!
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Sounds like life in London is getting back to normal!
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It’s been close to normal for some time now 🙂
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Ah, St Patrick’s Day is also very much celebrated around this parts, huge Irish community in Glasgow. Love the cartoon, made me chuckle.
It was the warmest day of the year yesterday in Scotland, apparently, with 20ºC. In March. Unheard of!
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That is good spring weather. 20ºC.and sunny would make it summer!
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Yes, minus the wind. My goodness, it looks lovely but it’s still freezing 😀
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St. Patrick’s Day will forever be associated with BBQ’d chicken, baked macaroni & cheese and bingo.
Interesting side note that there are no snakes in Ireland, as in New Zealand. One of the pluses about living in those island countries. And that the snakes were sorcerers. I didn’t know the symbolism behind St Patrick, but he sure left his legacy. There are big celebrations here for St Patricks Day – at least in the Irish pubs that abound in every capital city here. On account of everyone in Australia seemingly having some Irish connection in their family history!
The first sign of change of seasons?
It is getting cooler! Yay for that! I am starting to have more energy. That is the first sign things are changing in Northern Australia.
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For some reason, I’m not too surprised that Australians celebrate St Paddy’s day 😉
Did you know that Chicago dyes their river green for St Patrick’s Day? It doesn’t seem enviromentally friendly but they say it’s safe.
Glad to hear that it’s getting cooler down there. Fall is my favorite season, so good for you!
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The authorities in Sydney light up the harbour Bridge with certain colours to celebrate a special occasion. But a green river does seem environmentally questionable.
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On Vancouver Island the signs of Spring are truly everywhere. Bring. It. On! We are more than ready! 😀
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I can imagine!
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