The Arrival of Spring

“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.” 

From The Wind in the Willows By Kenneth Grahame

I feel like I have stolen Minnesota’s spring and brought it with me to England. Let me first apologize. It was not done intentionally. I won’t, however, apologize for being extremely happy that I didn’t have to suffer through record lows and ridiculous snowfall during the month of April (and into May). As you can tell by the numerous pictorial representations of the local flora, we have had a lovely spring so far here in the West Midlands.

In many ways the weather has reminded me of Minnesota and, on one hand, it makes me a little homesick, it also makes it feel a bit more like home. There are a few key aspects that are reminiscent of my home state.

The most prominent aspect is the human reaction. When the sun comes out you’d think that they hadn’t seen the sun before (herein lies one major difference between the UK and MN . . . here they haven’t seen much of the sun since August, where in MN the sun usually attempts to happily blind people by bouncing off the piles of snow). It may only be 50°F but they wear shorts and skirts that show the most possible leg and tops that cover the least possible amount of skin. They then proceed to scope out the sunniest spot they can and lounge. The lawn is scattered with them. Some have blankets or towels, others choose to sit on cement steps, while still others enjoy stretching out on the grass. I always tip my hat to those who just embrace that they aren’t going to get any schoolwork done and just bask in the sun instead of dragging a book and then promptly ignoring it. Bully for them. Some are smart and put on sunblock, but this usually isn’t the case. So the next day you can always spot those who threw off their studying to sunbath – and subsequently burn to various degrees of lobsters. The best are the ones that also have raccoon eyes because they were wearing large sunglasses and no sunscreen.

There are other little signs that spring is here. My favourite is that I don’t have to wear a coat. It’s the ultimate declaration that winter is over. Then there are the flowers. Warwick excels at having bright, beautiful blossoms all over campus. I love walking between out of the Arts Centre towards the SU. The flowers there are bursting with colour and smell amazing. I actually have stopped, closed my eyes and just inhaled. No manmade perfume can compare to the scent of flowers in the spring. They mix with air that still holds a freshness that only comes when new shoots push up through the ground after being long dormant.

The hardest part about spring this year? School. During May, for the past ten or so years, I have either been done with school or doing off-campus month long courses (one year I went to Key West, and yes it was as great as you imagine). Being trapped inside - while the sun shines, the flowers bloom, and the grass is dry - tries my commitment to my education. I haven’t wanted to skip out on writing essays so much in my entire life. Thankfully my friends are in the same boat; we try to keep each other accountable. However, our breaks are a little longer than then should be and occur with more frequency than during the cold, wet winter.

 

But even though I’m mostly sitting inside, gazing out at the lovely weather, I wouldn’t trade it for gloomy skies. Not even a little bit.