How unusual for us to be having a spring! As wonderful as Wisconsin is, there is no long delicious spring season such as other locales enjoy. Ordinarily, what passes for our spring is a brief and tumultuous few weeks characterized by a rapid transition from snow cover to dry and windy weather with grass fires to a humid explosion of bugs and tornado threats. As the quip goes, it’s a short interlude of bad sledding.

Some of my favorite vacations have been to places that have a lengthy spring. Places like Charleston, SC, and Mobile, AL, have months of gentle spring weather when lovely native flowers like azaleas and camelias delight the senses over an extended bloom time. Take a look at the background plantings on the Augusta, GA, golf course where the Masters Tournament was recently played. You can feel yourself relaxing just noticing the flowers and greenery.

This Wisconsin spring right now is not quite so green and leafy or fragrant, but the sun is high and warm and the outdoors is friendly enough many days for short sleeves, never mind the college kids in their sandals and shorts. Tiny leaves are opening on certain shrubs and daffodils abound in home gardens. Enough birds have returned to make a joyful morning chorus; even with temps in the 30s and 40s, a step outside with the first cup of coffee is pure music.

Trees are wise and not easily fooled. Their buds are swelling, but they are holding their leaves until day length nods affirmative. Animals and birds read different signals, though, and mating rituals take place in everyone’s front yards. Now is the time to watch tom turkeys strut their stuff, impressing the hens with elaborate feather fanning. Furry boys and girls of other species play mating tag in full daylight; notice the squirrels and rabbits. At night the husky grunts of foxes and the screams of coyotes indicate that mating games continue under cover of darkness.

Rain drives our spring. Soil moisture from snow melt lasts a while, then yields to the drying of wind. This year much of our precipitation has steered to the east coast. Small rainfalls have sustained our spring phenomenon, but barely. Grass and emerged greenery have turned their faces upward, awaiting rain; timely little sips have kept them from wanting badly.

A month and a half remains before genuine frost-free planting comes at the start of summer. Still, gardeners who like to gamble have planted early corn. Those who tolerate less risk have planted early potatoes, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and peas. Perennials can go in, but few garden centers are open yet. In southern places with early springs, folks are already laboring with yard work. Here, with six weeks before true planting time, we are enjoying the luxury of delightful weather and scant work. Lawn mowing and mosquito swatting will come, but for now it’s mild, bugless, and delightful in an unusual stretch of spring.