It's Spring--I Can Prove It!

California poppiesAnybody besides me notice that the weather--which has been notoriously unpredictable as long as I've been alive to enjoy it--is getting even more unpredictable? Like...a lot more unpredictable?

Now, I love the rain. And it's a good thing I do, too, because my formerly drought-ridden California town has racked up an impressive 30 inches for the season. That's about half again our normal average.

Not a week ago, we were in full "winter" storm mode (the calendar said it was spring, but only to us humans--it forgot to share the news with the wind and rain), with torrents of rain, gale-force winds, a tree landing on one poor Cambrian's house, and some local flooding. Just a week or so before thatA tree comes back to color we had low temperatures in the high 30s, which, for this neighborhood, is nippy in March. Well, really...any time. 

Fellow author Brian Farrey (granted he lives in St. Paul, MN, but this is an April forecast) tweeted this morning: I'm going to assume the picture of falling white flakes in the weather forecast is volcanic ash. #wintermustdie

The first of the wildflowersAnd suddenly, today (no, not yesterday, not the day before...today, exactly) it became spring in Cambria. Not on the calendar. In the real world.

Now, the weather being what it is (especially these days) I'm not promising we won't get another ten inches of rain in April. I'm not saying spring is here, and will stay. I'm not heavily invested in what it does next. But today it was spring. It was glorious.

Ella and I took our second 7-miler in the last four days. The first one was because we felt all cooped up from days of rain. This one was because it was just too beautiful not to go. The first time I didn't bring my camera, and I could have kicked myself, because the hawks, heronsLoving the sun and egrets were out hunting up a...well, I was going to say storm, but I won't tempt fate. Today I took the camera. I have photographic proof.

My apologies to those of you who are expecting snow. You'll get there. Spring will come. It always does. No action required on the part of humans. My favorite line from the Tao te Ching is the one in which the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. No one has to get under there and push. 

The hunter

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