Spring Springs!

As we here in Greenwich well know, the first sign of spring in Town is the blooming of the crocuses on the hill near the Second Congregational Church, beneath the Civil War monument that now stands atop the hill where once stood our first Town Hall. The yellow ones, always the hardiest and first to appear, are now visibly flecking the hillside, and with today's warm and sunny weather, they will undoubtedly soon be joined by the purple and white ones in the near future.

Generally speaking, the crocuses hold off until March. Once in a while they bloom, and then are covered by a late snowstorm, from which they gradually reappear against a dazzling field of white. Only rarely are they seen this early in the year, and, like the honking of the geese in the early mornings recently, provide us with proof that winter is on the wane and spring is just around the corner.

Well, "winter" is a relative term this year. After the October Surprise that cut power to over half the homes in Connecticut, we've been blessed with an unseasonably mild non-winter. True, there were a couple of cold snaps, but daytime temperatures have been well above freezing for most of the past few months. We've been lucky, having been spared the blizzards that have hammered the Midwest and Europe of late. Which probably means that our turn will come next year.

Mark Twain was right, as usual: "Everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." Your scribe is guilty as charged. But at least we here in Greenwich can be grateful that we don't want to do anything about weather such as that of today's, except to get out and enjoy it. And with that, I'm outta here!