Is Spring really here?

I think Spring slipped through here in a hurry this year. We've been having upper 80's for temps already. Not nearly enough spring weather this year. It seems to have sapped my energy!

Its been fun visiting others blogs. I'm sorry to say that 'life' has taken most of my time and energy for quite a while.. I'd forgotten how relaxing it is to 'visit' someone else's garden, home and thoughts. As I read Daisy Lupin's http://catsinthekitchenflorainthegarden.blogspot.com/ entry about gardens and seeds etc, I was reminded of my grandparents.

Shopping was always special and they always referred to it as “going uptown”. From the house in the Berkshires... nearly on top of the mountain, it was definitely a downhill walk to the store, but it was always uptown. Since the population was only around 300 people at that time, it probably wasn't a reference to going to a fancy part of town. The bigger market in town had two aisles and a small meat counter in the back. Frozen foods were in two small freezers. It always amazed me that they had everything you could need in that one small store. There was another small store in town which catered more to the checker players, candy lovers and pipe smokers. The post office was also in that store. It belonged to my great grandfather many, many years ago.

'Going to town' was always an event. We normally walked over to the library – (my Aunt Jo was the librarian at the time), perhaps a walk up the hill to the cemetary to check on passed relatives.. and a peek into the windows of the Episcopal church that could only have a minister once a month. On the way back to the house we always stopped to drop pebbles into the Farmington River which crossed under the road. The background orchestra was always bees, droning grasshoppers, birds, the wind in the pines and an occasional car. Everything that a summer's day ought to have.

When I was little I could stand at the top of our driveway and oversee the town – the river, church, houses – but in later years the trees in between had grown so tall that the entire vista was blocked. I have photos taken by my grandfather before the town had paved roads. Fascinating history found in those photos. The town was settled soon after settlers first landed in Massachusetts, but everyone was driven out by Indians at one time. The big house on property across the road was filled with Indian baskets and blankets no doubt done during that time in history. My only regret is that I didn't appreciate the living history all around me at the time. Many older people who lived during the 1800's with so many stories to tell with an audience not nearly large enough or appreciative enough.

I wonder why usually we don't appreciate things of the past until we are coming to the end of our lives when there isn't time enough left to truly appreciate those who went before.