Girl On The Waves Of Change

Remember these?

I didn't think so.

They're flowers.

A distant memory for me now.

It's March so 6 more weeks of winter, unless we do a repeat of 1978 when I walked home from school at the end of April in a Nor'easter. Can we say frostbite?

All the way home I regretted my choice of a dress.

Some of you remember this from my facebook page but:

I'm at work last month and a customer said to me,

"Only another month till spring, March will be nice".

To which I asked, "Are you from New England?"

(already knowing the answer)

"No", he says.

I said, "I have some bad news for you".

He probably thinks I'm just a cranky New England pessimist.

Time will tell. But this week until yesterday it was below zero every morning and in the teens in the afternoons. Yesterday it was 7 above though so things are improving.

See below for accurate March conditions.

So far I'm feeling confident. We'll have some nice days here and there but Winter likes to linger here as long as it can. I can't blame it really, it's a pretty nice place to hang out.

Maybe it is what makes us so appreciate the spring and the flowers when they finally do arrive for good in May before the blazing heat of summer arrives in June and settles in until September. At least we don't have the sun rising at midnight like in Alaska, heavens, we're crotchety enough already. If you're visiting in pre-spring otherwise known as Mud Season (March and April) think of us as bears coming out of hibernation. By now we're pretty tired of alternately being holed up inside in sub-zero weather, shoveling the driveway, de-icing the car, and calculating the rationing of the rest of the wood supply.

It is a land of extremes in every respect I can think of. Weather, stark wilderness and populated coastline, wealth and poverty, cranky and kind people, beauty and urbanization, really good and really bad architecture. Opposites co-existing, making each more extreme by the very existence of the other.

I'm sure New England isn't the only place these things could be said about, but we really do have a lot going for us where I live. Mountains and seaside, lakes and rivers, Outdoor recreation year-round, museums and orchards, National Parks and Major cities (when so desired) are all within an hour's ride. Pretty much all you could ask for.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should consider a job with the tourism marketing dept.? I might feel like a bit of a phony though considering that if someone offered me a sweet little house in Southern California where it's 75 degrees all year I might be on the next plane. But I digress.

I'm reminding myself as winter drags it's heels that there are things to look forward to before we have to

hunker down and do it all again next year.

I'm looking forward to the garden...

maybe I can finish filling it in this year