Spring? Here? Now?!

This is my third spring since escaping the merciless winters back east and I’ve yet to adjust. Groundhog’s Day in those parts is a total joke. Even if good ol’ Phil predicted more winter, spring was much further off than a mere six weeks. April snowstorms were regular, there was a blizzard one year at the Mothers’ Day Marathon and it even snowed the day I graduated (May 19th) after a notably mild winter. No way was spring going to settle in by mid-March, let alone February.

I have no idea whether the ground-piggy saw his shadow or not, but spring seems to be here in Portland. Little buds are sprouting on all the trees, the rain has stopped (for now at least), bulbs are sprouting from the ground and it is positively warm. And I’m positively suspicious. It seems unfathomable to me that spring could be here. I remember my first winter in Rochester and the lovely week in April that lulled me into thinking the cruel season was over. It wasn’t. I entered the library one sunny afternoon in sandals and ended up hiking in those same sandals through snow to my mid-term.

But all the signs are pointing to it being spring for real. Having three whole months of spring feels like such an incredible gift!