On the Edge: Late Winter and Spring?

On March 1st last week, I thought we had turned the corner on winter. Bathing suits are now prominently displayed in the department stores.

But then, winter returned and is queen again. The snow is present on both the East and West coasts, as this photo of the San Gabriels in LA county shows.

Photo courtesy of E. Rowen

With friends John and Rose, I enjoyed two excellent days of cross-country skiing. In the spirit of Ruth Rudner’s book Forgotten Pleasures, about simple outdoor excursions, and in honor of locavores everywhere, we needed only drive a mere 15 minutes to find great conditions.

From Pennsylvania north, a large storm dumped lots of snow on the eastern seaboard.  On the Virginia coast, my friend Steve reports, " We had about an inch accumulation, lots of rain, probably 2 plusinches, which melted the snow and some decent wind."

In Albany, in upstate New York, the storm set a record for Friday March 8th, with 6.5 inches of snow.  Fortunately, the snow accumulated gradually, but steadily, as the following two photographs show.  The other fortunate part of the storm was that the snowblower, which my friend Don gave me when he moved, started on the first pull and made fast work of the white stuff!

Thursday at dusk



Friday morning

By day’s end Friday, the snow had stopped and the snow had melted from most of the highways.

If the weather forecast is correct, it will soon be over 40 degrees and more of the snow will roll back. This coming Sunday, Daylight Savings Time will start. Having the extra time in the evening will help many people take another step to getting in the spring and summer mindset!