Spring Fever

Hi Neighbor, originally uploaded by aryllascott.

Yesterday afternoon, I was struck by my first episode of Spring Fever. The sun was shining in my window; the temperature was up to about zero; I’d been sitting here in this office trailer for hours and my mind just froze up – no transmissions between synapses. I put on my heavy coat and gloves, lowered the flaps on my down hard hat liner, and set out for a walk.

At close range, there wasn’t a lot to see but snow, snow, snow, a few brown plant skeletons from last summer, and tracks from previous visits by ptarmgian, caribou, fox and perhaps even the two wolves we’ve seen in the neighborhood this week.

But futher out, I could see rolling hills and acres of snowbanks cultivated by caribou pawing down to find buried lichen. A month ago, the slopes looked like they were covered by smooth white bed sheets. Now, they are all getting roughed up. The caribou have been hard at work and the evidence of their labors is building. There are few smooth surfaces left.

These caribou are just plain cute with their skinny little legs sticking out from the bottom of full coats that look like a nut brown parkas with white ruffs. They peer at us with lovely huge eyes. Right now, there are thousands of them scattered like herds of sheep on the hills but it won’t be that long until they gather up like they’re all headed for a rock concert, and march north to the calving grounds at a fast clip.

I wonder if they get Spring Fever. I imagine them pausing for a few moments on this glorious afternoon to look at the blue and white mountains and contemplate just how amazing it feels to have made it through the dark and cold of another winter. The sun has returned from its annual winter vacation below the horizon and the temperature is rising. It was -52 about ten days ago, and now look at that thermometer! I think they might say, “Yipee!” before turning their gaze back to the lichen showing at the bottom of the hole they’ve just dug, thinking (just like me as I return to work,) “Let’s see now…where was I?”