Dogwoods, redbuds, azaleas, tulips, migrating and nesting birds, local produce, gentle breezes, exquisite temperatures. It's hard to know where to stop in describing the joys of April; this month is in a close race with May and October for my favorite month of the year.

Maybe it's the spring fever that takes hold now. It began in childhood when I wanted to escape the classroom, and it continues through adulthood when I want to run away from my responsibilities. It's that itchy antsy desire to get outside, soak up the sunshine and goof off. Who doesn't want to wile away some time just messing about with out a care?

My husband David and I tour our garden every day to see what's happening; it's all changing so quickly. Tulips burst forth like bright lollipops to accompany the daffodils in their dance. Iris, poppies and lilacs open as the month progresses, adding purple, orange and fragrance to the mix. The loropetalum in its hot pink fringed finery looks like a 1920's flapper and outshines every other thing in our garden in early April. By the end of the month, the crabapple and dogwoods will take center stage.

Bluebirds, chickadees and wrens swoop around the yard with beaks full of twigs, leaves or moss for nest building. Louisiana waterthrushes shriek from the stream edges; the earliest of the returning migrants, they will spend the summer raising families along the three creeks that cross our land. By mid-month other warblers, tanagers and hummingbirds fly in, their bright colors and sweet songs ringing from the tree tops, drawing me out on early mornings, still in my pajamas, binoculars in hand, and make me late for something.

The forest is greening up, first below where the ground is cloaked with grasses, ferns, honeysuckle, and wildflowers. The trout lilies have passed the baton to the spring beauties for most prolific flower, and they are joined by the windflower, bloodroot and giant chickweed all white and gleaming in the bright spring sun. The green umbrellas of May apples pop up, and I search in vain for morel mushrooms, which supposedly grow beneath them. The redbuds open and cast a pink haze across the woods, followed by the pastels of fresh young tree leaves that will enclose the forest in new green by months end.

Take a walk or ride a bike down East Franklin Street, across campus or through Westwood. Visit the Coker Arboretum or North Carolina Botanical Garden to see the splash of azaleas' hot magenta and coral, soft purple and pink against the snowy white of dogwoods. Get outside, let April wash the dust of winter off of you like the spring rains wash away the pollen. Give in to the fever and become an April fool.