Warm weather is here but April showers turned into torrents

I’m sure there have been spring days in previous years as delightful as the ones we are experiencing this year, but I don’t remember them being so frequent.

When the thermometer registers 70 to 80 degrees, it's difficult to stay inside. Of course, the lawn mowers are getting a great workout after all of the rain we have received. The hills are alive with music. The birds and spring peepers share their joy.

The flowering trees have been magnificent. The red buds are outdoing themselves currently. The Bradford pear trees were beautiful − so showy, so nicely shaped and numerous. They originally came from Asia, but are now classified as an invasive plants and must be eradicated. Invasive puts them in the same category as the multi-floral rose and autumn olive, and we know what that means.

Our April showers turned into torrents with spring rivers, flooded fields, roads closed and many wash outs. We wonder how some of these fields will ever dry up enough to be able to be planted.

The lawn mowers have put music in the air. The grass is so green and pretty and rapidly growing. It’s spring time and fingers are itching to play in the dirt planting seeds that will give us food to eat and feed our livestock and flowers to beautify our lives. Aren’t we blessed.

We are currently being told that 40% of the food we produce is being wasted. I find that unbelievable with the needs we see that exist.

I really wish our educational system still contained home economics courses as they used to. Life isn’t all competitions and sports.

Let’s look forward to May with dry fields, the music of tractors running, planting being done, even hay being made, Mother’s Day celebrated and remembering our loved ones on Memorial Day and school dismissed for summer fun.

Dorothy Montgomery is a former teacher, 4-H adviser and county commissioner.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: When the spring weather is delightful, it's difficult to stay inside