Spring always seemed to come in rivulets of melting ice inches thick on Meeting House Road where we lived in New Boston, NH. The slanting spring sun’s rays thinned the winter’s snow coat. Now we could no longer walk on top as we would sink to our hips in the soggy snow. Grass spears began poking through to let us know that soon the pasture would be painted in brilliant green.
Lilac nubs began pushing through their winter casings soon to be gorgeous purple, white and maroon. We always picked some for the Memorial Day parade which wended its way to the top of Meeting House Road into the cemetery that stretched further to the crest of the mountain. We would clutch our fragrant prize and scurry across the pasture to the bow way and meet the trudging band and citizens. I can still hear the band’s trumpets and drums echoing from near the Piscataquog River in the center of New Boston. Then the sharp crack of the rifles as salutes were given to the fallen soldiers. Then silence followed by the thrump, thrump, thrump of the drums.
Paula Lelansky Little, niece.Spring is my favorite time of the year. The crocuses and daffodils heralding a new season! Always, when we were young, we helped my Dad get his vegetable garden ready – tomatoes, corn, squash, etc. etc. I remember when I was “responsible” for the radishes – so fun watching them grow and then of course eating them! Now, I’ve gone back to Mother Earth. I’ve gotten my compost and mulch piles going, planting herbs, flowers and bushes, watching all my perennials pop back up that I’ve been planting every year, cleaning out gardens. When I went with Jennifer Merton (Joe Gibb’s daughter) to Aunt Bunny’s (Nancy Gibbs), I dug up some of her garden flowers/plants. Sadly, the rose bush (Grammy Gibbs’) didn’t make it in my garden, but the foxglove and other flowers come up every year and I love having a part of Grammy’s and Aunt Bunny’s gardens! Bosky Acres lives!
Marion Patterson, daughter. Sapsuckers (the picture to the left is of holes drilled by the sapsuckers as they migrate north)…shad bushes…bluets that Dad called “pissabeds”…black flies….
Rich Patterson, son-in-law.“In spring, the chain pickerel get active and are fun to catch. So, while living at Cedar Lake, in Denville, NJ, I’d fish for pickerel and perch. Bass like warmer water and bite in late spring. Saw my first woodchuck of the Iowa 2009 Spring season late last week (March).“
Susan Fellows, daughter.
“The biggest memory I have for Spring was Dad rototilling the garden patch then sending us out amidst the black flies to “pick the rocks” on the newly turned earth. Seemed every year there were more and more rocks. Dad always got the earth ready by Memorial Day and had his green peas planted by then so they would be ready for July 4th when Mum would fix either creamed tuna or salmon gravy over potatoes and peas as a side dish. That I did enjoy. The fresh peas, for that matter everything from the garden was so much better tasting than produce from the store.
“Another Spring project was putting the screening over Mum’s high bush blueberry patch. It was quite the event. One year Craig Lelansky and Aunt Sally, I believe, were up for a week-end. Someone took a picture of Craig watching with his silly grin at the unfolding operation.
“Dad would go fishing at “his” favorite trout streams. He would hike into the woods where he knew there were beaver ponds and creeks which no one else bothered with, in search for “native” rainbow trout. They had a brighter pattern on the sides and pinkish meat inside. Farmed trout weren’t as pretty in color and the meat was a non descript ecru color, not pinkish but more egg shell color. I liked the native trout as the flavor was so much better but I didn’t care for the flavor of farmed trout. It became more difficult every year to find native trout and Dad got kind of sad knowing they were a disappearing creature.
“Back to the garden. Dad planted green peppers and tomatoes which he disliked immensely, but Mum liked them fresh as did we kids. Other plantings included onions, cucumbers, pole beans, bush beans, wax beans, three separate plantings of corn about 2 weeks apart so there would be corn coming in from the end of July ’til late August. Oh, the corn on the cob was so, so good. He also planted sunflowers so he could have seeds for the birds in the winter, pumpkins, yellow, crook-necked squash, butter nut squash, lettuce, radishes, spinach, carrots, parsnips which he left in the ground ’til Spring because over the winter they became very sweet. Sometimes he planted turnips/rutabagas. All the good stuff was eaten as it came into season and Mum canned many items . After we got a freezer she froze many items except tomatoes, wax beans and several other products from the garden.”
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John Fellows, son.Dateline Spring:
“Often with lingering accumulated snowfall slowly melting and frozen ground below Mom, Dad, and I would sit down about now and figure out the coming season’s planting.
“It was assumed and not discussed that the ground would be prepared in advance. The important topic was what and where the expected harvest would be planted.
“Greens. First into the soil would be greens. Chard. Spinach. Beets. And yes, radishes.
“If/when those sprouts broke through, and hard frost was only a possibility, then cultivation began inearnest.
“Peas. It was always a race with Mother Nature. It was always the goal to have fresh pod peas for July 4th. Too early in the ground and the seeds would freeze or rot. Too late and the pods wouldn’t be full for the 4th.
“Beans, corn, squash, cukes, melons, and taters. Into the ground their seeds went, tamped, unseen.
“Hours later, not a change. Days. Still nothing.Then a week or so later, cheek to the ground, early in the morning before school or work, an odd crack in the ground could be observed. All day the thought of that crack consumed the mind until returning to the plot that evening it was confirmed: a sprout! And not just that one, but many! And the next day many more! The Garden! It is growing again!”
Jackie Fellows Hull, daughter. 
