Spring's agendas

IN Washington last week the cherry blossoms bloomed in time for the annual spring parade. That doesn't always happen, nor even happen often. The agenda for the parade - the commercial floats, the marching bands, the tourist attractions - does not necessarily match the cycle of light and warmth that triggers nature's explosion of bloom.

We hear about more snow in Utah.

Here in New England it's barely crocus time. Forsythia have begun to tinge a few hillcrests yellow. Any week now, if not any day, the first real warmth will flush the grasses green and in the evening, as dark comes, the earth will stir and creak with sound, and the first raw aromas of spring will penetrate the night.

Opening day at Fenway Park. The Red Sox against the undefeated Tigers.

The Boston Marathon today. Thousands of runners from suburban Hopkinton, pent-up gains from a winter's hard training timed for release in a two-hour-plus exultation on the road to Boston's Back Bay.

Congress off for the Easter recess. Will the legislators work the banquets, the club luncheons? Or will they meet with their families this time, and friends?

Colorful wear in mall windows. Broom rakes, galvanized tubs at the hardware.

A neighbor walks to the edge of his garden. Has the soil drained enough for tilling? When will the raspberries leaf out?

High school kids linger, take the longer route walking home. Suddenly they want to be together, then alone.

It's spring, with its many agendas.