Spring Has Sprung….

Although our winter season was a mild one, both in terms of cold and snow, giving us hopes for an early arrival of spring, our optimism proved illusory thanks to a near record-setting chilly and wet month of March that extended into the first week of April.

The awful March weather curtailed outdoor activities, pushing back the start of the spring sports season for high school and youth athletes. Our gardens, especially sensitive plants such as hydrangeas, were tricked into displaying their future buds early, only to have that potential for early-spring growth literally nipped in the bud by single-digit wind-chills, all but assuring a summer season bereft of clusters of blooms.

However, what a difference a spring day or two makes! The warmth of Monday and Tuesday felt so nice — and how quickly all is forgiven of Mother Nature for the cruelty she forced upon us in March.

No doubt we will have many more un-springlike days before the summer arrives. The word “spring” by itself is an oxymoron for those of us who live in Eastern Massachusetts, where the still-frigid ocean water ensures that we always will be 10 degrees cooler than it is 10 miles inland.

But we will take what we can get, and it does not get any better than what we have had these past few days.