Plodding into Spring

The male cardinals cast their songs from high branches and telephone lines, making points of throaty red against the blue of a clear sky. Atmospheric clarity still partners with Arctic air, and though the sunlight appears spring-like, the temperature is bitter. The tedium of cold, gray winter has sapped my energy and dampened the spark that launched this blog and catalyzed my efforts to address climate change. My tired desk is deep in piles of unattended business, like a garden surrendered to the weeds.

Perhaps I’m discouraged because encountering impediments when erstwhile there were none. Having effortlessly initiated organics recycling at Lake Country School, I’m now working (with others from Linden Hills Power & Light) to begin a similar program at Southwest High School. The principal has sent us to the Minneapolis School District. Like Dorothy and her faithful companions, we have knocked on the gates of the Emerald City, and the District has told us to go away.

As Nora and I pick our way through ice-rutted alleys, I dully acknowledge the overflowing garbage carts and half-hearted attempts at recycling. I feel uninspired to tackle the problem, though last fall I was eager to take it on single-handedly. Nora, too, is blase. Alleys have lost their magic for her until the happy day when chipmunks emerge from hibernation and squirrels abandon their good judgment.

Maybe I need to see some green to feel fired up about acting green.

This Saturday, a group of us from Linden Hills Power & Light will attend a conference on neighborhood sustainability. We’ll speak about our organization’s evolution and find out what other neighborhood groups are doing to combat global warming. Also by the end of this week, I shall have a revised garden plan from Tyler, the landscape designer with whom I’ve been working since the fall. Hopefully, the convergence of these events will give me the bump I need to get moving again, in this blog and elsewhere.