The following article was written by Sue Crowley, the Executive Director of the Woodland Dunes Nature Center.
I was taking a hike out on Cattail Trail boardwalk the other day to see what the rains of spring have filled up, rejuvenated or washed away. It brought to mind the well-known saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” Of course, then I wondered who first coined this phrase of hope and promise. It turns out there are couple of folks to whom it is credited. It seems the most common one is an English farmer and poet named Thomas Tusser. In his 1557 poem, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry. The line in his poem is “Sweet April showers/Do spring May flowers”. However, many believe that an earlier bit by Geoffrey Chaucer is found in The Canterbury Tales of the late 14th century. Now Chauser brings the month of March into the scene—here is the translation I found:
“When in April the sweet showers fall
That pierce March’s drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;”
Upon making my way down the boardwalk, I noted April rains filled up the pond and the little intermittent streams are bubbling and babbling providing temporary corridors that allow fish to make their way to spawn away from the larger river. Much farther out on the boardwalk, where the cattails of last year once stood tall, I came upon several areas where large swaths of cattails were laid down by the most recent rainstorms. As the powerful flow of water receded back into the main water way it caused the brittle cattails to bend in one direction pointing to the West Twin’s inlet. With the replenishment of fresh waters and washing over of the earth’s surface we eagerly await the gift of Aprils showers.
