We’re tired of winter’s mischief …

…

It’s time for spring! According to the calendar the official date is Tuesday, 20 March so we have about twelve days of winter remaining. That’s two weekends and lots of opportunity for mischief: snow, rain, sleet, blustery wind and the sort of fickle weather that defines the season when the landscape begins to come alive and gradually shifts to green.

The highlight of March is St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. Notwithstanding, when Easter is early, as it is this year, the shamrocks seem to get lost in the displays of Easter baskets, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies that fill the shops.

St. Patrick’s Day is, of course, a celebration and remembrance of the Patron Saint of Ireland. I think we sometimes forget that Saint Patrick was born in Britain, abducted and taken to Ireland as a slave when he was young. He was able to flee back to England, gain an education and eventually become a priest, returning to Ireland as a missionary bishop.

I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by baking Irish Soda bread. It’s an easy recipe and always seem to come out perfectly. I love the sweet taste of the bread, filled with currants, with a cup of strong Irish tea. At the same time, and in anticipation of spring, I usually stop by the florist and buy a few shamrock plants so the house feels like spring – even if there is still snow on the ground and a chill in the air.

One of my favorite plants is the Oxalis regnellii, also known as the purple shamrock. The triangular colored leaves feel like velvet and occasionally trumpet shaped, light pink flowers emerge. The purple shamrock can be planted in a shady garden, yet I prefer it as a house plant. Just after sundown the leaves fold up and the plant appears to have gone to sleep. It comes awake in the early dawn. If the plant becomes tall and gangly (it grows quickly) just take scissors and cut it back. Within a week you will have a new plant filling the pot.

As we think of real Lake Style – during the summer season – we can reflect on this poem from the beloved Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. Soon enough the warm days will be here.

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.