On an unusually warm day in February, I noticed a purple violet pushing up through winter’s fallen leaves. This tiny harbinger of spring cheered me up after a season of gray skies, record-breaking rain and very little snow. Sometimes I think I’m solar-powered, to the extent that I crave sunlight for energy and joy.
As I write this in mid-March, a howling wind has tree branches smacking the windows and I think about that little violet I protected with a berry box. Spring will soon arrive with the goldfinches turning butter yellow, bees seeking burrows and birds building nests as the earth breathes and blooms again. Yet April can be a capricious month, as captured in this excerpt from Robert Frost:
Two Tramps in Mudtime
The sun was warm but the wind was chill
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still
You’re one month on in the middle of May
But if you so much as dare to speak
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch
A wind comes off a frozen peak
And you’re two months back in the
middle of March.
I hope the images in the poem make you smile—it’s one of my favorites.
With my focus directed back outside I look for simple recipes. My sautéed asparagus has only five ingredients and is easy to put together as a side dish.
Ingredients
2 T. olive oil
1 lb. asparagus, tough ends trimmed
and stalks chopped in three pieces
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the asparagus, salt, and several grinds of pepper and sauté, stirring often, for 3 to 6 minutes or until tender. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of Parmesan (if desired) and serve.