Last night was the first night I heard significant insect sounds flooding the neighborhood. I guess it makes sense since yesterday was the spring equinox. ‘Equalnight’ sounds more exotic to me than the Latin word ‘equinox.’
For anyone who missed it, the breeze and temperature combined to assert the fact that spring has sprung. Walking around all the neighborhoods felt magical in a way that defies description. I’m certain it’s a primeval recognition of things renewed.
I chased the local barn owl around the streets across the railroad tracks. It flew over me three times, its wings flapping like a carpet being whipped in the air. Its hoot was enormous as it echoed and created a Doppler effect as it swooped away.
I stood in the darkness, listening to the insects and the birds that refused to pay attention to our clocks. I did my best to stand absolutely still long enough for my camera to take an exposure and show me what would have been otherwise unseeable. I found a little slice of Narnia.
Before I reluctantly finished my walk, I made a huge loop and came back around to Elm Street. I like listening to the rooster crowing. And imagining the neighbors futilely trying to cover their head and ears with their blankets as it announces the day. But maybe they’ve become accustomed to it, much in the way that the roar of the train as it passes isn’t a nuisance to most of us who experience it. (For married folks, I would compare it to realizing that your spouse has been talking for 10 minutes and you suddenly recognize the buzz of words to be someone actually talking to you.)
Elm Street also has a house with a beautiful multi-colored Christmas tree in the front window.
Before finishing my walk, I paid a visit to the towering Mimosa tree to check its branches. After living here a few years, experience has taught me that it is the one true barometer of the season.
Fayetteville has decided that mimosas are invasive, and perhaps they are. I would argue that we are too. The staggering growth of Northwest Arkansas proves it.
P.S. Parenthetically Speaking 