Spring arrived about a week ago.  Here in Colorado, that usually means 8 more weeks of winter.

This year, however, we have had a very mild winter.  There has been plenty of snow in the mountains, so we will not have a problem with water supply.  But because there has been less moisture than usual here at lower elevations, fire danger may be worse this summer.  We’re hoping not.

But the fact is, not too many of us are complaining about the 70-degree weekends.  As I sit and write this at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, it is 78 degrees, with bright sunshine and a few small clouds.  The humidity is around 12%.  It is absolutely spectacular.  And it’s been like this most weekends since early January.  While the east coast has been slammed with snow, ice, and brutal temperatures, we’ve been resisting the urge to get the swamp cooler uncovered and running.

When we have a warm spring, after a warm winter, I have to wonder how hot we will get this summer.  It probably won’t be any different than it has been in the past.  One of the great joys of living here is the amazing summer weather.  Yes, it gets warm.  But not really hot.  I don’t miss the lack of air conditioning in my car, for the most part, and as soon as the sun starts settling lower in the sky, it is quite comfortable being outside.  I haven’t found a time of year yet that I don’t enjoy being outside.

Of course, it took me longer to get to the writing of this post, so the pictures I’m putting in here are from two weeks ago.  We are much further along in the greening of things than the pictures show.  Trees are starting to leaf out, or at least get that orange/green look about their branches, the neighbor’s daffodils have bloomed, and everything I show below is twice as big as it was when I took the picture.  Looking forward to gardening season, but I’m resisting the effort to do more than put something in the cold frame and start the seeds in peat pots inside.  I know better.  Our average last snow is late April, and our average last frost is Mother’s Day.  I should be able to plant potatoes within the next week or two, but everything else will need to wait.  And that’s okay.  As long as I have a few pretty things to look at in the meantime, I’m fine.

My indoor plants think its spring.  Or something.  The geraniums are the ones I pulled up from the outside planter last fall, and have never stopped blooming this winter.  And the Christmas cactus is a rescue from last summer that I thought was going to die.  This is its first bloom for me – absolutely gorgeous!

The Snow-On-The-Mountain I transplanted from the townhouse to the current house last year is already coming up and looking great.  The lilies are also coming up nicely.

The dianthus that are supposed to be annuals but are always perennials for me are coming up as well.  They will be early bloomers and bloom heavily all summer long until a hard freeze in the fall.

Spring brings incredible views of storm clouds.  We have the most wonderful clouds here.

I even have some volunteer lettuce coming up in the veggie garden next to the back door.  Not enough for a salad…yet!

This is also the time of year when avocados become stupid-cheap at the local stores.  This is not an unusual price, and sometimes we see them as low as $4 for a dollar.

This is a wonderful time of year to be alive.  And I am reminded of that every time I step outside.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2015 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.