The end of winter??? What winter? Did winter ever begin? Not that it has been swimming pool weather these past few months but certainly this has been a most unusual winter. I cannot ever remember having the few hundred miles I have clocked to date on this date. Today was cloudy with only occasional peeks of sun and there was a strong (stronger than I anticipated when I went out) wind that became cold and biting whenever I made a turn that created a headwind. And a headwind it was for the last maybe 12 out of 15 miles...I got home, headed for the shower and simply luxuriated under the hottest water I could tolerate. I was coming down the last stretch mentally comparing my ride with a couple of ski trips I remember from many years ago.
On the other hand we have had so much fair weather and sun I saw daffodils in full bloom in a number of spots today - daffodils I associate with the middle of April not March 4! The photo is a farm field which should be still brown but already things are turning green and the farmer has to be thinking of getting out his plow and discs. And even though I can remember having snow for Easter a couple times in New Jersey the forecast is for a beautiful week in the days to come and I am not betting on any more snow this year...riding yes, but winter is on it's way out.
It seems that I've been talking so much about weather this winter that every reference has become a kind of cliche. At the same time riding in shorts and short sleeves on the 14th of March is definitely not the expected pattern. I came back from yesterday's ride and the temperature was 73 degrees. And, as can be seen from the photos, the sun was out without a cloud in the sky. I passed a kind of ramsheckle farmhouse with all the laundry hanging out to dry - it may be hard to see but the first line is all quilts and very colorful when I got a little closer. It made me recall how my mother did the same thing... first real spring day and she was hanging the laundry on the lines in the back yard (am I really old enough to remember days before modern washer/driers? wow!). The line of daffodils in the other photo was just further proof of our early spring. I was seeing the first forsythia coming into bloom, the beginnings of the fruit trees blossoming and, of course, the farmers out with tractors and plows getting an early start on their spring planting. I had a kind of strong headwind to contend with for much of the ride but it is far less hostile when it is warm. And when I got home (from fifty miles of back roads) I headed out to the back deck with a beer and watched the ducks paddling around our pond and fighting over the affections of the very popular single female. It doesn't get much better.
