The minute daylight savings time began this year, spring came in with a BOOM! Bright sunlight. Warmer temperatures. Sparrows twittering in the hedges. Most importantly, the melting of ice and snow. Finally.
Only three days before, snowy roads snarled traffic. School days, airline flights and trains were canceled. Nighttime temperatures dipped into the single digits.
One week later, we still had a skating pond by our garage doors, a mound of snow on the front lawn and lingering, muddy impressions of deer hooves (yes, deer hooves).
Somehow, with warmer temperatures and longer days came a surge of deer. I first spotted their hoof prints on the grass by the Woman's Club of Roland Park. On my way across the street, I saw a line of cloven prints in the snow by our neighbors' wall. It looked as if a few bites of yew hedge had been taken, too.
I followed the tracks. They appeared in the snow near our front door, across our lawn and through the side garden. The deer netting we had installed a year ago was still intact, so I thought the deer had not made it to the back yard. Wrong. Somehow they jumped the netting or slithered beside the lilacs to reach the garden. There, it looked as if deer had been dancing a jig to celebrate the arrival of spring.
We have had scattered hoof prints out back before, but never as many as the ones that came overnight last week. Hoof prints are everywhere: in the peony and rose beds, on the moss between the flagstones, in the bed with the rudbeckia. Nothing much has emerged, so nothing looks eaten. Mercifully, our hostas and tulips, deer favorites, are still below ground. Our crocuses the deer love are just leaves. Daffodil foliage is shooting up, but deer do not care for them.
Other signs of spring fill the garden. Snowdrops are nodding their heads on the greening grass. Red nibs of peonies are pushing up. Chickweed spreads across the bed of new shrubbery. Why won't deer chomp down on some chickweed and help me weed?
After a thorough inspection of the hoof prints, I went to the garage for a bottle of Liquid Fence. I sprayed it out front, on both sides of our house and all over the back garden. Fortunately, rain did not fall for a few days. I hope the deer party was a one-time gathering and not a reoccurring, nightly convention on our corner close to Cold Spring Lane and Roland Avenue.
Another sign of the season is the increased decibel level of car stereos on Cold Spring, even at night. You would think noise would deter deer. Apparently not. Jackhammers all day, as repairs to Roland Avenue continue, are a new spring sound.
The perennial parade of yellow trucks to patch potholes and craters throughout the neighborhood has begun. A new road surface on Roland Avenue cannot come soon enough for drivers. Attractive new light fixtures flanking either side are signs of hope. One day, the 18-month improvement project will be complete. The zelkovas will be full of leaves. The street will be smooth. Crosswalks and curb bump-outs will slow the zooming cars.
Meanwhile, we embrace spring. After the deep chill of the past few months, it is hard to believe that old spring favorites have arrived: the mass of lavender crocuses beside Sunset path, the witch hazel blooming in a backyard off Hollywood Lane and in two front yards on Goodwood Gardens, the swales of snowdrops connecting three houses on Ridgewood Road.
I find it hard to come inside after longer walks through the neighborhood. On almost every outing, I see and hear formations of geese. They gather on the Poly football field.
Another old favorite that used to pop up mid-winter will soon make an appearance: the Baltimore Bach Marathon. For the first time in 39 years, the annual music extravaganza at St. David's Church is happening in spring. We are ready for its celebratory sounds.On Sunday, March 22, from 1-7 p.m., the music of Johann Sebastian Bach will fill the church. This year, the organ will be joined by piano, harpsichord, cello, flute and violin.
City Baroque and S'amusant, Baltimore's newest early music group, will join the St. David's choir in this enhanced musical marathon.
The sights and sounds of spring in Roland Park are miraculously back, along with a few new surprises, natural and man-made.