According to an old expression, March is the month that comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb. It’s a very old expression, and unfortunately for those like myself that just like the imagery, it doesn’t appear to be true. When I settled in the Midwest, I had some fond illusions about the vast advantages of living where Weather Happens. I’m not going to say I was completely wrong, but maybe I should’ve paid a little more attention to a casual remark by a Hoosier that “at least once or twice, winter makes a sincere effort to kill you.”

Likewise, Greg and I were inclined for years to laugh off the local advice not to do any new planting until after Mother’s Day. After all, here in the Kansas City area today the temperature is in the 60’s, puffy clouds are about and winter is surely gone, right? And the correct response is: not necessarily. Because the wind is also gusting — staying still for minutes and then rattling windows and making tree branches dance. This is end-of-winter nastiness. You’d think it would just admit that it’s over, stop trying to kill you and go out like a lamb. But there’s still a good roar or two left in this old boy, I can tell. And I won’t forget anytime soon that the two worst winter storms I’ve ever been through in Indiana and Missouri were in late-February and early-March.

My own anthropomorphic metaphor for the end of winter is that it’s like a snake going through a knothole. It’s true that once the head goes through you can’t get bitten, (see fig. 1) and once the middle of it goes through it may not be able to squeeze you (fig. 2). But as the last of it is going through, the tail starts to whip back and forth, and if you’re stupid enough to get near it, it’ll fetch you a nasty biff (fig. 3).

I know that’s not very good snake-lore. The snakes that kill by constricting aren’t fast-moving, and the ones that are fast-moving aren’t big enough to impact a person apart from biting them. And it may not turn out to be meteorologicially pertinent either. But it’s good folklore, if you ask me. It’s somewhat true, it sticks in your mind and it’s got animals and weather in it. So everybody watch out for the snake’s tail.