Let's blog about spring

Spring is really more of a moment here than a season.  Okay a series of non-consecutive moments.  I live in north Florida, not the panhandle.  We are equidistant from the Atlantic Ocean & the Gulf of Mexico & while we cannot see either of them, we still enjoy a temperate climate.  A shocking number of people here think the weather is extreme, but once I listen to them a bit more it turns out they are not insane, they have just mostly never lived anywhere else.  Or they have been here for a really long time & other weather has lost its bite.

I am not saying it is always lovely & never dramatic, just that while 30F is chilly, especially if you don't own a heavy coat because why spend the money on a coat you might wear less than seven times a year (seven is my go to number- if I won't do it for a week a year, it is hard to plan for allocate funds, etc.)...  So yes, it IS cold, made colder by choice but that doesn't make it not cold.  & while the thermometers might have the a bit of overlap, 30s F here is NOT the same as 30s F in a place where the snow drifts so high you can only see the street from a second story window. 

Sure you could say that summer's here are harder than in colder places.  But they are not.  I have spent some miserable drought-amplified summers here.  I would still rather be here.  The Midwest summer are baking & they have not built to deal with it (yes, I mean air conditioning, but I also mean houses to catch the breeze, with interior windows so it can move right through).  I have spent many summers in CT, NJ & TX for the summer; it is generally more comfortable here.

But I miss Spring.  Every seasonal misfire everywhere else (cherry blossoms that bloom early & get caught by a freeze) is the norm here.  Every year Spring starts & stops & starts & stops & starts & then it's Summer.  & I like Summer just fine.  Still it would be nice to have a gathered Spring.  Instead I have learned to look for the redbud tree, the return of the birds, the Chickasaw plum tree.

& brightest of all, the indian azaleas. 

Spring is not so much a season, but a series of bursts between winter & summer.  Even with all that color (winter being mostly a drab green & summer being a vibrant green) it can be easy to miss.