Celebrate March! Joyful Simplicities for March

Celebrate! As in, total “Yaaaaaaaay! Woohoo! Zonino! I got my Pink Book back last night!!!! Well, I got it back yesterday when I went up to see Mother and Roni. But I spent the day listening, enthralled, to Leslie (she was visiting) tell about meeting up with a long-lost cousin on our dad’s side – Jerold. Or Gerald. I don’t know how it is spelled. Anyway he goes by ‘Jerry’. But I digress wildly, as I am prone to do. Roni and I also went on a long family errand, and then rewarded ourselves for a job well done by going to see “It’s Complicated” at the dollar theatre in Sugarhouse. Hence, I didn’t get home until late and I didn’t get to read much of my Pink Book. Before I went to sleep, I stacked some wonderful pillows on my bed (my favorite workstation) and re-read March 7th, 8th, and 9th so I would be ready to go today. A very pleasant note on which to fall asleep.

Upon waking this morning, I staggered into the kitchen to make my coffee. (Staggering is the way I wake up. I don’t know if it’s more ritual or deficiency). After my coffee was prepared and my computer started so it could get going while I started my day, I kutched up with my throne of pillows and read the Joyful Simplicities for March. There is such a richness there, I couldn’t get any farther in my reading before responding here.

Oh, the delights to be enjoyed, absorbed, undertaken. Have you read the Joyful Simplicities for March? How Wonderful they are, every one of them. Of course, I do have my favorites. I can’t wait to get some daffodils and bring them home.
I was in Oregon last March to visit my son Nate and his adorable and precocious children, Ambriel and Ascha. Driving from Portland to Corvallis along the back roads so I could enjoy the environment and the character of the area, we saw huge groups, clusters, fields almost, of daffodils in the medians and along the shoulders of the roads. Remembering them today makes me want to plant about 100 bulbs so I can have my own field of daffodils. I wish I had thought of this last fall, so I could be enjoying them right now. Alas.

Forcing fruit blossoms is a magical, mysterious thing to me. Shawn has already done this with cherry blossoms. I want to do it with apricot blossoms, but it is his tree, so I will see if he minds if I do this. I will have to have him watch over the process. He is magic about plants, and everything he touches turns to lustrous beauty, whether it is his forced blossoms, his impossible-for-anyone (except for him) to-be-successful-with orchids, his lush vegetable gardens of lettuce, carrots, kale, chard, tomatoes, peppers, squashes, etc., etc, or his luxuriant purplish-maroon amaranth, to his perfectly manicured and artistically sculpted lawn, his herb garden, his plants, flowers, and artifacts-as-art front garden, or his clever bower of hops plants over an outdoor seating area.

For March 17th, this year I want to try the St. Patrick’s Day dinner of soda bread, corned beef, cabbage, and boiled potatoes, washed down with beer. Neither cabbage nor corned beef are favorites of mine, but it might be fun to make this an event. I have some wonderful Celtic music by some local boys, Kirkmount, that we should listen to, also. I must tell you about Kirkmount. I learned about them in 2000 when I went to a Mountain Man Rendezvous near Laramie, Wyoming with some friends. We had been there for several hours and I had lost track of my friends, I was tired from drinking beer in the middle of a hot day, I was trudging along and I was grossed-out because everything was dirt, and then I heard the wonderful sounds of an orchestra of angels. Then I noticed three very young men on the side of the dirt road, next to a large teepee-like tent, playing a cello, a harp, and a violin. Oh, I guess it would be called a 'fiddle' for this music. Also something I have learned is called ‘bones’. Up until that time, I didn’t know it was possible to so love Celtic music. It added to it that they were in 19th century, long red underwear; one was wearing his with a magical black tophat; one was wearing the underwear with some authentic-looking trousers and suspenders; the other was wearing a 19th century-style white shirt. (I don’t remember what his pants were). But I was so spellbound – I stayed there through the entire set, then I found their Aunt Vera who was wandering through the gathering crowd selling their CDs, and I purchased their CD “The Robin,” (on which they play Celtic standards and some of their own compositions). It is the most magical CD I own (and I have hundreds).

And then there’s the Vernal Equinox. (I have wondered about this name for quite some time. I think it’s a great name, vernal. I think it means ‘green’. OK – Dictionary.com says: “appropriate to or suggesting spring; belonging to or characteristic of youth.” Well then, I wonder how Vernal, Utah got it’s name? It doesn’t look particularly youthful or spring-like. Then there’s the Autumn Equinox. Why do we call the season “Autumn” - Well, ok, in the U.S. we mostly say ‘Fall’ - but we don’t call the other season “Vernal?” I know I digress again, but it is a good question).
Anyway – March 21st is my son Michael’s birthday. Every year, amazingly! So I want to celebrate it this year with him and his family, along with Shawn and his family (which is fair, since I live with Shawn). We could have Salmon cakes like Sarah suggests, and tender asparagus, and boiled new potatoes with hints of new rosemary, coated with butter (of course!). I think a delicate angel food cake with strawberries, or even just the strawberries themselves would make a delectable dessert. And Shawn even thinks this is a good idea. Can’t wait.

I am really itching this year (besides the reality of itching skin - not to mention hot flashes - due to dangerously low hormone levels, I mean this figuratively) to make the Living Easter Basket. We don’t really celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, but it is great fun to celebrate and honor Earth and the planets and the sun and the galaxy et al, as visible growing and greening returns. When Nathan and Megan were really young, I made easter baskets filled with colored eggs, a stuffed toy or two, and ripe luscious strawberries. I would like to do that again this year, but add it to the living basket. Another succulent treat!

Oh, I’m so grateful to have spring almost here. I know we are still due for a substantial snow fall or two, but at this time of year I can deal with it, it will be gone the next day. Oh joy, oh simplicity, oh vernal!
Victoria J Mecham