Look, I actually planted shrubberies. And they’re not dead yet!
Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. At least that’s the old adage.
One of my favorite meteorological bloggers has been kind of down on the spring we’ve been having so far. After a pretty horrid winter (as they all are, pretty much), we’ve been experiencing a spring of somewhat below-average temperatures and quite a bit of precipitation, he keeps reminding us. And gardeners and farmers, in particular, have faced challenging nights and mornings with temperatures skirting the freezing mark.
Well, I’m here to say that I think we are finally having a lovely spring for the most part. Sure, I wouldn’t mind it to be a bit warmer, especially in the mornings. I wouldn’t mind, as we approach May, not having to warm up my house in mornings and then again in evenings with a few minutes of turning on the heat.
But, if memory serves me well, in recent years we pretty much went from winter straight into summer, with hardly a glimpse of spring. What we seem to be having these past few weeks and are projecting ahead for a number of weeks is an actual transitional season. Winter is over, and summer isn’t showing any signs yet of coming. Instead of temperatures jumping 40 degrees, we’re gradually warming up into the 40s, 50s, 60s and occasionally reaching the 70s. And yes, we’ve been getting rain (although it doesn’t seem like we’ve been getting an inordinate amount of rain).
Isn’t this better than having had a winter that extended well into April (which we have had in the past) and then suddenly finding ourselves with days in the 80s and 90s? Don’t we love living in the Berkshires and upstate New York – and in the Northeast in general – precisely because for the most part we actually have four seasons (although in recent years it has often been two seasons – winter and July)?
I think we’re having a great spring, and I’m happy to stave off the hot, humid, sweltering summertime blues requiring air conditioning for the health and safety and comfort of animals, computers, and humans alike.
Everyone likes to complain about the weather, but very few actually praise it. Let this spring be praised.