Evening star., 1946-02-21
This and That
By Charles E. TrnceUell,
'BETHESDA. Md.

Del tAESDA, Mo.
Dear Sir: ..-. ..e4.. - -.
I'VE have couple of doves in our
yard now, and they seem to me the very
breath of spring.
Am right in regarding doves as signs
OF spring?. If they are, certainly they
are very pleasant signs.
Il like to watch them. While they
lack the grace, perhaps. of the smaller
songbirds, they have plenty of beauty,
and love to hear them.
Some people declare the dove song Is
mournful, but it has always sounded
pleasant enough to me-
"At our feeding station we have most
OF the birds usually seen around here in
winter. Doves do not come very often,
that is why they make me think of
spring.
Il do understand that some people
have them the year around, but out our
way we never have but two at a time,
and, as this year, mostly in February.
Yours truly, M. K"
~
Signs of spring are partly in the mind
and heart.
II you choose to regard dove as a
hars,inger, then he Is such to you.
Doves have springlike qualities.
Not all signs of spring are mental,
however.
There are many real ones visible on
every hand, no matter what the weather
of an individual day may be.
Those cardinal songs, for one thing
And the whirling melody OF the Caro-
lima wren, happy and free
The red peony shoots, up about half
an inch
And the pansy plants, looking we'll and
Lappy-
The grass is greener, and the air
seems to have different feel to it,
These are all signs of spring, indica-
tons which any one may share. They
are not hard to take, either, after wet,
cold and unusually dismal winter, 1t
seems to us.
Disagreeing with whatever any one
says, no matter what he says, has been
brought to fine point in this age In
international relations, it leads to war.
In everyday affairs, it simply makes
for moment of i'll feeling, shortly
shaken off, as big dog shakes off water.
But the greatest of all pests is he who
never accepts your own verdict on the
weather without saying just the opposite.
You say, "It has been bad winter
He says, "Oh, do you think so? I
think it has been an unusually nice one"
You say, II think it was hot, dis
agreeable summer"
He-or She says, "Oh, think it was
cool summer"
There is nothing to do. of course, but
shrug.
Perhaps some one will see no signs Of
spring at all. Predictions about the
weather-and what is spring but wealth
er to our taste?-are notoriously difficult.
(See today's weather forecast.)
Yet If you go out into the yard, and
look close. or closely, depending on how
much of a purist you are, you will see
those red tips peeping through.
Marvellous plants, those peonies.
Old fashioned, too, real horse-and-
buggy-days plants, but still among the
best. This thing of sneering at old
things is easy, but it is often very much
mistaken.
Peonies sometimes are fooled They
want spring. too, and occasionally are
nipped in the bud, but not often.
They are tough, able to take it, usually
managing to weather even the worst
setbacks.
They possess, evidently, something Of
the hardihood Of the robin, real har-
binger.
Grass may show bit greener, to the
| critical eye, but 1t is not until real
robin or two walks around In every ones
| front yard that spring really win be here.