Oh what a glorious time of year! The daffodils have all wiggled through the hard winter earth and popped open with a giant “hello world!” The birds have returned and are busy reconnecting with their spring and summer friends, moms and dads are pushing their smiling youngsters in carriages or wagons and best of all the windows are thrown open to usher in the spring air. There is simply nothing finer than inhaling a giant gulp of fresh spring oxygen. Ahhhh.
Nantucket has awakened from its long winters nap these past couple of weeks. Friends, neighbors and local business owners are filling window boxes and planters with a wide variety of pansies, daffodils, hyacinth, violas and other fragrant wonders. It’s as though we are all preparing for a giant summer production. The curtain goes up on April 29, when we kick the season off with a weekend long party – The Daffodil Festival.
I’m not sure what it is about this delightful season that puts a “spring” in our step and a smile on our face…but it certainly does. On my walk recently I noted that every single car I met had a smiling driver behind the wheel. Perhaps it’s because in the spring everything is new. New plants and flowers, new buds on the trees, new coats of paint to freshen our homes, new babies, new romance, new attitudes, new opportunities and a new outlook. Spring, more than any other season, reminds us that everything has a beginning…and an end. It’s time to bid our quiet season farewell and look ahead with childlike anticipation to sailboats bobbing in the harbor, Main Street bustling with activity and the arrival of our summer guests and friends.
There’s a fabulous bronze sculpture, by renowned Nantucket artist and sculptor David Hostetler, that embodies all that is good about this season. The sculpture is aptly named “Springtime.” Her head is tilted back to experience the warmth of the sunshine on her face, she’s pulled her summer floppy hat off the shelf, dusted it off and has it tilted “just so” on her head. She’s running her hands through her hair as she welcomes the day…and my favorite part of the piece is that she’s stepping forward with her right foot as if to say to the world, “Yesterday is in the rearview mirror and I am confidently moving forward.” That is Springtime. Yesterday is over; today is a new day.
It’s not too late to make plans to come experience the “official” Nantucket unveiling of Spring during the famed Daffodil Festival, April 29-May 1. We still have several rental properties available and many of the restaurants and retail stores will be premiering new menus and merchandise. The Island will be painted in a spray of yellow as daffodils line the roadways and spill out of the window boxes. Grab your yellow floppy hat or suspenders and come celebrate Spring!
It’s a new day….
Shellie Dunlap
