We in Southern New Hampshire are looking towards temperatures in the 50s for most of the next week after 50s in this one. This will banish the last snow pockets and dry up the mud. The robins will come to the front lawn and the song sparrows will return to their favorite rhododendron.
And the nurserymen will live in fear.
In his poem “Goodby and Keep Cold”, the poet says goodbye to his young orchard for the winter and turns his hand and his saw to firewood. His last words to his apple trees are to remind them not to fear the coming cold.
“Fear fifty above more than fifty below”, he tells them.
For once our apples and pears and peaches begin to bud, and if this happens in March, there are fearsome odds against getting to June without a freeze.
Wise but sad words from one of America’s greatest poets, a man who farmed the gritty granite soils of New Hampshire , a countryman who knew what hardships came from this difficult climate.
Gardening On Granite 
What a wonderful post! You are a NH girl already by saying simply, “the poet”. :<) I don’t recall reading that poem and I thank you for posting it. Wasn’t it last year that so many fruit trees were damaged because of an early spring and later frost? You’d think if the climate was going to change in late winter, it could continue that change by no frosts late in the spring.
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