A Disappointment

 After reveling in the appearance of round-lobed hepatica flowers yesterday at work,

you can imagine my disappointment to wake up this morning to this:

Still, it is only mid-April, and despite the fact that we keep thinking that spring is here, as in sunshine and flowers and baby birds, in truth spring IS here, as in unpredictable weather that lands between winter and summer on any given day.  The flowers are starting to bloom, but must be prepared for snow, frost and ice.  Birds are on their eggs and must be prepared to hunker down to keep them extra warm against the chill.  The sun may shine, or it may be hidden in a bank of clouds, obscured by a seasonal blizzard.

Flowers adapt by having flexible stems, woolly coverings, and stalwart dispositions (can flowers have dispositions?).  Birds adapt by fluffing up their feathers, trapping heat close by the body.  And the sun, well, the sun is always "out" - we just can't always see it.

So, it is spring in the truest sense of the season.  We've been spoiled these last few years with spring warming up earlier than "normal," the season jumping almost directly from winter to summer.  This is, no doubt, a more traditional spring.  Mother Earth keeping us humble.