Day 56
It’s Saturday, March 31, 2012 … the last day of March and it’s currently 70 degrees outside. This is wild!
When I was little I paid special attention to the old adage about March … in like a lion, out like a lamb. Or vice versa. And I have no idea if that was true or not during those childhood years (I had better things to think about on March 31st those days … like pranks for the next day!) … and I have no idea if that has been true these past years or even this year as I can’t remember what our temperature was on March 1st and I’m (currently) too lazy to look it up! And, quite honestly, I don’t really care. All I care about is that today it’s going to be nearly 84 degrees! WOW!
Out like a lamb, indeed! A lamb with sunburn.
But all I can say is … bring it on! Wooo! I am so sick of winter! And it wasn’t a bad one … or a snowy one … or repulsive in any way … and yet it seemed interminable. The older I get I just really want milder winters and green! (Yeah – that’s why I’m moving to CHICAGO!)
I suppose by the time I’m 80 I’ll be basking in the warmth at some southern sun-drenched retirement village looking like a wrinkled old alligator and not worrying about snow or cold. Sounds good to me!
March is typically our snowiest month here on the front range with average snowfalls of 11.7″. April comes in third snowiest with 9.1″ on average. No wonder I’m not such a fan of springtime here and why I’ve wanted to move for a long time. I like spring but CO doesn’t really get a good one. Some years are beautiful and long … but most of the time they are snowy with a few teaser days (like today) thrown in for good measure thanks to Mom Nature and some high pressure systems. And it’s not like we get rain, either. It’s snow or pretty much nothing!
I have a big, beautiful crab apple tree out front. Some years the blossoms are so fat and fragrant I want to just pluck them from their low branches and eat them … like in the book The Boy Who Ate Flowers. Yum! Those are the years … if the winds don’t blow the flowers from the trees within 24-48 hours (which also is normal) of their budding time and we don’t get snow and things don’t refreeze … I get crab apples.
I don’t know how old that tree is … at least 15 years and in all that time I think I’ve had 3 years of crab apples on it! Last year was a bumper crop and I enjoyed sitting out on the front porch last fall watching the squirrels scamper around in that tree eating the apples and doing their natural pruning of the branches.
This weekend we are to have record breaking temps … and so March will go by peacefully and gently with no roaring snow lions in sight. It’s supposed to be 68 degrees up on the ski slopes. Sam is boarding this weekend … in the sun and slush. Such fun!
Yeah … good-bye March and wear your sunscreen Lamby!