Find yourself a hillside

I love this springy book passage from Spring Snow: The Seasons of New England From the Old Farmer's Almanac by Castle Freeman, Jr. -

Now, before the trees begin to leaf, before the grass begins to turn green and grow, the land is unguarded. Get out and see it. Find a hillside, sit down, and look over the country.
The air is cold, but already the wind smells of plant life, growth, and earthworms. The land looks like a patchwork cover worked years ago by a stern old wife who distrusted bright colors and fancy patterns. She patched simple rectangles, mostly of common cloth and in common colors. Hardwood stands are brown; above them the belts of softwoods are soft green. Cornfields are a kind of dun color from the brown mud and the gray or brown of last year's stubble. Meadpws are tan, the color a of a pale fox. Where people have their gardens the patches are a fine, rich black. Only where gardeners and farmers planted cover crops last year is there now bright color, intensely green.
You can sit and admire the season. It's one of the shortest of them all. In a few weeks the world will be green. Even today, althought the nights are cold, if you're outdoors at evening you'll hear in the woods a single peeper sounding the same note slowly, regularly, over and over again like a bored kid dinging away at a piano.

- From the essay "Look of the Land"