I adore spring (it’s my favorite season), but the temperatures all along the East Coast have been unseasonably warm for at least a week (like , 60 – 70 degrees every day) — and there is no sign that it’s going to get colder any time soon — even though the forecasters are promising winter isn’t done with us yet.  Apparently, it’s warmer in New York than it is in Florida — at least according to this map.  Now, that’s weird.

What concerns me is that the trees here are looking a little “pregnant” — that is, they’re starting to get that sort of full look, with a muted reddish tint, that trees always get in the late winter just before they start to bloom.   Usually that doesn’t happen until March in this region, or sometimes as early as late February.  But mid-January?  That’s not normal.

The grass is also starting to look like it needs a mow.

I also saw a bee buzzing around.  And the birds were singing as if it was May.

I think I recall in 2007, the same thing happened.   Shortly after Christmas it got warm and stayed warm for two weeks — and the rose bushes outside started to bloom.  So did some of the early-blooming shrubs.  But it got cold again, and by the time real spring rolled around, the shrubs decided once was enough: they weren’t going to put on their flamboyant show of color again.   So they just went from bare to green.

If it stays warm, then, well, maybe global warming is true after all (and now we have a President who thinks it’s a myth started by the Chinese) and we can start to plant palm trees here on the East Coast.   Hey, I hear they plant them on the Jersey Shore now!  They’d probably have an even better chance here in the South.

But if it gets cold again, which most likely it will, then I’m afraid we’ll be in for another barren, bloomless spring, like we had in 2007.

Spring, you know I love you, but please be patient!   It’s too early.