A Short and Sweet Post About the Signaling of Spring in the Lehigh Valley

By Carter Lansing, Photo by Laini Abraham

After the New Year’s glitter has been swept away and Punxsutawney Phil has long since offered his opinion on the prolonging of winter, spring comes. Humans have developed countless ways to measure time. Clocks, calendars, studying the movement of celestial bodies. But there is usually some trigger or event that marks a moment in time. The first snowfall of winter; the first day at the beach in the summer. These are moments that are so penultimate that they define a season.

We watch for the first lightning bugs to blink. We salivate at the thought of sweet corn in the summer. These are individual experiences, but they seem universal. Everyone has those singular points of clarity that say “This is now, this is the season.”

For some, the return of the Shad to the Delaware is the “official” start of spring. For me, it is when the peepers and various other frogs begin their nightly serenade around our pond. Or when the fiddlehead ferns start to unfurl and spread green around the edges of the woods. Maybe it’s when the snow becomes a memory, allergy season sets in, and Easter candy is in the stores. What tolls the true beginning of spring for you?

Carter Lansing is one of Easton’s new additions. His band is called the Acoustic Kitty Project.