...all at once, one day, it's Spring!
It's not my favorite song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and not a particularly profound line, but it's particularly a propos at the moment.
A week ago Sunday, February 28, I walked outside between services on the south side of the building and was hit by a blustery wind. And it felt fresh and cool, but it wasn't cold. That was the moment I knew that Spring really has begun. (And we had snow flurries only the week before!)
All that week it was on the humid side, mostly cloudy and with some rain, but it didn't get uncomfortably cool at night. And when the rain cleared off, it wasn't because of a cold front. It was a strong, straight southerly wind, the wind that characterizes this area from April to October.
Thursday it was warm enough to be uncomfortable to get in the car that had been sitting outside all day. We had some rain over the weekend and we were back in the upper 40s, but it has not felt cold. There's an indescribable extra chill to winter coolness that this coolness did not have.
Today? The warmest yet, high at least 74. I wore a linen skirt and a chiffon short-sleeve blouse to work, with a sweater for the walk in early in the morning. I had to use the air conditioner in the car once I got on the highway.
I looked out the window today and knew it the year was getting on, because of the angle of the sun shadows. Most of the trees in view were live oaks and the grass was yellow-brown still, so it could have been late summer. But the still-leafless trees in the distance and the bright clarity of the blue sky meant it wasn't that hot.
Most of the trees are budding, not just Bradford pears. The pecans stay bare the longest, but the post oaks have big fat leaf buds all over. Last Sunday there were live oak leaves underfoot, which means they're dropping to make way for the new leaves.
Spring here isn't long, and often it's broken up into a couple days at a time when fronts come in and before it gets hot; but it is a season nonetheless, and to be enjoyed to the full in its brevity.