SEASONAL LIVING AT ARCADIAN REVIVAL

As indicative of the season technically turning toward the end of this month on the calendar, March has always felt like an in between season. When I was younger, the eagerness of warm weather and bustle of being hunkered down in schoolwork seemed to dominate. Today, I find myself well-settled into the slowness of this month, content with the snow and cold, offering a window for me to savor a few extra weeks of focus on the work in front of me before my soul pulls me more fully outdoors. 

I have even found myself a bit hesitant to curate too many spring blooms before they’re more locally available. I attribute this patience to my keen sense of understanding the local ecosystem. If the flowers aren’t ready outdoors yet, I no longer feel a demand to bring more in than I need for a project, or an early Easter holiday arrangement perhaps.  

I’ve come to garner more affection this time of year toward tending to the needs of a few trusty houseplants to purify the air, curating a natural progression of mixing spring colors into a styled seasonal aesthetic as I enjoy spending time in the rooms that feel the brightest.

In our home, March means maple syrup season. In fact, my hometown in northeast Ohio hosts an annual Maple Syrup Festival. We probably go through more syrup than most people. The process of sugaring is one that more and more of us are connecting to in recent years, and is one that is ingrained in who I am.

For me, my childhood consisted of pancake breakfasts in century-old churches, community centers, VFWs, schools, and firehouses. Each spring we would head to the maple syrup festival for a maple stir, and I was even lucky enough to have a few memories of evenings spent boiling in the sugar houses of friends we knew.

March is a time to perhaps pick up a book we haven’t otherwise made time to read, and I find myself baking with syrup, acknowledging how lovely a sweet dish is served up with a freshly brewed coffee or tea over breakfast in the morning. 

And so rather than an afterthought or month of “in between”, March for Arcadian Revival is all about sweetness, in both because of the syrup and the calm time we have at home to just be together.