Cold Awakening

Those "hounds of spring on winter's traces" have been digging in the flowerbed for more than a week now. Out of nowhere, to paraphrase the Bard this time, rough winds did shake the darling buds of March, and the temperature dropped like a stone.

The daffodils that have flowered so early don't mind a bit of frost, but those tender perennials that have unwisely poked their noses above ground and the foolhardy buds on flowering shrubs are vulnerable to sudden, sharp freezes.

The damage here, however, is mainly aesthetic. Farmers may have to postpone planting potatoes for a week or two until the ground defrosts, and spring vegetables will probably be late, but that's about the extent of it. In the South, on the other hand, where azaleas bloomed two months ahead of time following one of the mildest winters on record, the unexpected cold snap is believed to have destroyed as much as three-quarters of Georgia's peach crop and a large number of orange groves in central Florida. In Louisiana, they were spraying the strawberry fields with water last week, trying valiantly to clothe the emerging fruits in a protective cloak of ice.

Spring makes its appearance tomorrow. Two weeks ago, nobody even cared - we thought we'd beaten winter completely. Now, however, we are acutely conscious of the official change of seasons, hoping that Mother Nature will follow the calendar's counsel this time, as she has not done for months.