Waiting For The Squill

The week here in Wisconsin has been bitter cold with winds and a few inches of snow. We are hoping for a warm-up but it doesn't look like it will be any time soon. The months of February and March can bring winter storms that bring down trees, cut off electricity, and leave you with the worry that winter will never end. We haven't seen that yet but the cold and wind have made the wind chill well below zero. Warm hats, face shields and mittens, not gloves, good boots with a wool lining and a warm coat, are the requirements to spend any time outside.

During the next couple of months, the snow will accumulate and the wind will make hard surfaced drifts. The surface of the snow may become so hard that the coyotes will be able to run on top, while the sharp deer hooves punch through that hard surface, leaving them vulnerable to attack and unable to escape from the hungry, screaming pack of wild dogs. Winter is hard on everything, but necessary for some life to continue. Many plants and seeds require the low temperatures followed by the warmth of spring to signal that it is time to begin their growth process. Many plants that we consider as weeds, that feed and shelter the creatures of the fields and forests, must go through the cold or they simply won't grow.

When the wind creates the drifts and the snow blows around the bases of trees in the woods and at the edges of meadows, areas are left barren around and underneath the trees and bushes, while the deep snow assembles mountains of cold and delicate, shimmering crystal landscapes. When the wind dies down, the surface shimmers with millions of white diamonds. But around the bases of the trees and under the thick bushes, a small and persistent miracle is happening; the squill is starting to grow.

What is a squill you may wonder? It is a tiny white or purple flower that only flowers in the last days of winter. During the summer months, it gathers nutrients in its leaves and sends them to the tiny bulbs that are deep in the ground. Whatever tells it that spring has arrived - I do not know - but it does and comes back in the spring year after year after year. More and more of them. Not only are they beautiful but they have a fragrance so intense, so powerful, that just one awakens your senses and tells you that winter is almost over. In the sanguine stillness of a bitter winter day, the disturbance of that flower by a tiny mouse will bring you memories of warm spring rains and green grass showing in patches through the snow.

So we in Wisconsin, are braving the bitter cold and winter winds, just waiting for the squill.