Returning light
The town is spring cleaning. Picnic tables have sprung up around the ice cream stands. (Who invented the picnic table? That sturdy A-frame defines camp grounds and outdoor sandwiches on crumpled napkins, but there must have been a time when it didn't exist. There must have been a time when campgrounds didn't exist.) Street sweepers are out, and drain cleaners, and shirtless men walk on flat rooftops checking for leaks. Beds of earth are turned over beside the sidewalks.
The parks are spring cleaning too. Great Barrington's Riverwalk held its first cleanup day last weekend, and Berkshire Sanctuaries in Lenox invites volunteers to put on gloves and clear its trails, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Cleaning the Housatonic River, Eagle file.
Whether you take clippers along or not, these mild days are good to be out in. And as the nights get longer and warmer, another mark of the season appears: lights. My neighbors stoke up their cinder block grill with wood kindling, and I can see the embers glow. Walking home a week ago, I saw a string of small lights lining stairs and railings. Candles, I thought, and wondered why — were they devotional, or a remembrance, a reverse Halloween or a sign of Passover, a gift to travellers?
Maybe all of the above. Close up, I saw they were electric, but they are a sign of warmer weather. They are a sign that not long from now, I will be able to stretch out on the deck, with a lamp burning on the rail, and listen for bats.