Ever since The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper created the word “prevening” to refer the hours in late afternoon hours and early evening, I’ve been waiting for a chance to coin a word, too. The crazy weather of the last six weeks – our April-like March and now our March-like April – provided the perfect opportunity to combine the two into one new month.
I call it Marpril.
The original plan was to flip flop the order of the two months, putting April in front of March from now on. It seemed like a good solution last week during March-in-April when three nights of hard frost did damage to the magnolia tree’s leaves rather than to the blossoms as usually happens. But this year, the magnolia tree bloomed and dropped it’s petals during April-in-March. But, the flip flop plan died during this past weekend’s normal rootin’ tootin’ April weather display, complete with wind, thunder, lightning, rain, and tornadoes. Hence, my elegant, new word solution emerged.
Marpril
A lovely word, don’t you think? But a dark side hides behind the loveliness. In Marpril, frost can shrivel magnolia leaves. It can turn crab apple blossoms brown,
put an end to dreams of cherry picking in June,
blacken some peony buds while leaving others untouched,
and fill the rain barrel over and over and over.
Lovely, deceptive, and dangerous.
That’s our Marpril.
A month not to be trifled with nor savored. A month which seduce with warm temperatures during the prevening hours, then ushers in a cold front the minute your back is turned. A two month period, which could stretch into three. In which case I’m ready with another new word.
Maypril.
My words are gonna make the next edition of Webster’s. You can count on it. Which is more than can be said for March and April Marpril.
