I just love that word Spring. It is such a lively word when you hear people talk about having a spring in their step denoting happiness, and the anticipation of better things to come. It is also that lovely season of nature reawakening from its long winter slumber. We begin to notice a discernible stretch in the day with that extra four minutes of daylight being added on every day since the twenty first of December. Our mornings are also brighter making it a little easier to get out of the bed.
People begin to feel more alive again getting ready for better weather and looking forward to a whole new year ahead in the great outdoors.
The Park runs are in full swing again. We have operation Transformation and Dancing with the stars keeping us entertained and challenged.
I am sure most people will have learned at school that lovely Irish poem “Anois teacht an Earraigh” Or Spring is coming composed by Antaine O Raifteri, the blind poet.It opens with Anois teacht an Earraigh Beidh an lá dul chun shíneadh, Or in English Now with the springtime the days will grow longer.
In the Eurovision song contest of 1970, which Dana won when she sang “All kinds of Everything’ with the lovely opening line of snowdrops and daffodils. This a ovely song for this time of year around Valentine’s Day when love is in the air. It continues with Summertime Wintertime, Spring and Autumn too, Monday, Tuesday every day I think of you. Dances, Romance etc. All kinds of everything captures the mood of so many people as they dream romantically, purchase gifts, buy flowers, chocolates, dine out, drink wine, and have a nice time for Valentines.
We must also think of poor old St Valentine that 3rd century Roman Saint who loved birds and roses. It was his bravery in marrying people secretly to save the husbands from going to war that has ensured his everlasting place in the love stakes. During my years spent in Dublin I visited to St Valentine’s shrine in Whitefriar Street where St Valentine’s remains are buried since 1836. You might call in to `Whitefriar Street Church along the Quays next time you are in Dublin.
This is all happening in Spring, but Spring is also about nature awakening and preparing for a new season of growth.
I was out in Springmount Nursery in the first week of February, and I noted the total transformation from the Christmas season. instead of baubles there were shelves of seed potatoes, onion sets, shallots and bulbs and plants of great variety. While I passed through a corridor of floor to ceiling high packets of seed I had a sense that spring was in the air at Springmount.
Meanwhile the crocus, daffodils, hyacinths, primroses and many more spring flowers continue to bloom. The flower pots on the Main Street in Gorey are also bursting into life at the start of another growth season. I just love the little birds like the robins, wrens, house sparrows, the blue tits, and the hopping blackbirds as they get a pep in their steps during this great season of Spring when they will shortly start their antics looking for a mate.
So, its love to you all from Love Gorey the loveliest loving town in Ireland in Spring and all the year round.
Mick O Callaghan 13/02/2023
