Spring Doesn't Quite Begin in March . . .

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

. . . Or at least, March does not begin with spring. The Purim Full moon happened Sunday night to Monday morning, and with it came another round of snow. This time, light and fluffy.

The full moonset from the bedroom patio, while it was still fair dark . . .

















Later, I am barely in time to take a picture of the Adar Moon as it begins to slip behind the snow covered Pinyon and Juniper on Los Pecos Loop during the early morning dog walk.

Although it had snowed, the clouds hiding most of South Mountain in the pre-dawn twilight look like the rain-filled clouds of spring and summer. The snow covering the road is soft and slippery. It is barely below freezing and destined to be gone soon.










A February fog fills the Mountain Valley, even though March has just (barely) begun. The evidence of the changing season is subtly there for us, as we walk the meadow in the early morn.

Clouds lit by the sun that is still below the horizon have the look of spring rains rather than the late winter snow they had brought us.

It has been a long, snowy winter. The snow that came to cover the ground on December 7th melted back, but did not depart and we have had many a storm since then.

We have now had at least partial snow-cover for three months.

But on the new calendar, spring does begin in March. And today it is 50 degrees and the sky is blue, even though there is still a good 4-5 inches on the ground under the trees and in the north lee of the hills. The solar angle is perceptibly higher. Winter's grip must loosen at last, and the warmth will come again.

A Touch of Green to Gladden the Heart

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

It started like this at the very end of April...

A touch of green,
tightly wrapped,
not yet ready to venture out.
It could still snow...

and did a few days later.

And in the first week of May,

tiny leaves venture out,

testing their flexibility in the wind.

And then, suddenly, it seemed,
the leaves though new, are full,
dancing in the Mother's Day breeze!

And the door garden,

so recently dormant,

has become abundantly,

fruitfully green.

Spring comes in May in the Sandias.

Nice Day

Shabbat Shalom!
Winter is loosening the grip, and Spring is wooing us, even if prematurely.

It is a nice day.

You know, one of the first days on which we can open the windows, and smell the fresh air, coming to us on the south winds.

The sky has taken on that spring-like robin's egg blue, so that we know the real eggs are not too far in the offing now.

It's a strange contrast of a day.

One on which it's good to be outside, and the sun feels warm on the rock, but the snow lingers in patches, not quite worn out from the warmth.

The solar angle is rising,

so that the length of the shadows and the length of the day fortell the coming of real Spring, and beyond.

It's a good day.

A day to sit out on the porch and read for the first time this year, and listen to the breeze, so recently cold and hard, but now warm and soft, as it sweeps through the tree tops.

But it's early yet. A body still needs a wool shirt to protect against just a bit of chill on that south wind.

It's a nice day!

I wish I could post the smell and feel of the wind, and the warmth of the sun.

But all I can post are these pictures,

tantalizing hints of the Spring to come, though they are, they do not completely convey the niceness of this day.

It's a really, really nice day! Sixty degrees, soft winds, golden sun, blue sky.

We might say that March is coming in to 2008 like a lamb.

Except it's supposed to snow tomorrow night.

So it's just a bit too early to say that Spring has sprung!

But it does seem as if Spring is tensing the coils, gathering the energy, and demonstrating her potential to Spring out fully, later.

The Vernal Equinox and "the Month of Spring"

Happy first day of spring according to the new calendar.

To the right is the sunrise this morning. The came up quite a bit to the north of where it came up on the Groundhog's day cross-quarter day. At that time, the sun came up in the notch in the trees above the house across the street.

It is now coming up due east, which is right for the equinox.

Yesterday was Rosh Chodesh Nisan--the new moon of Nisan, which is the first day of the month of Nisan. It is also called Chodesh Aviv--the month of spring. This is a very important month for us because on the night of the full moon of spring we celebrate the Pesach Seder--the feast of Passover--and for the next seven days we celebrate the festival of unlevened bread--Z'man Cheruteynu--the season of our freedom. Yesterday we read:

"Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt, literally, "the narrow places"): This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you..."

Yesterday then, was also Rosh Hashanah Chodeshim--the New Year for Months. which is one of the four new years celebrated in the Jewish calendar. We will not taste Matzah for any snacks until the evening of the 14th--the full moon--when we celebrate Pesach.

I am still busy with the preparations for Pesach. I need to finish shopping for Passover food and kasher (make fit) the kitchen for Passover. This involves all sorts of unusual cleaning practices, including changing the dishes, immersing every day implements in boiling water, and using a blow-torch to clean the stove burners! I am grateful that I now also have a self-cleaning oven, which makes kashering the oven more practical. (Now is payback time for our Christian friends, who will smile at this piece of insanity just as we smiled at the practice of bringing a large, dying tree into the house and the vacuuming of pine needles in December).

The weather is absolutely beautiful. They keep threatening clouds and possible rain--which would be alright--but so the far the barometer has stayed stubbornly high. If it does rain, then according to old weather lore, we are in luck because on the quarter days the weather of the day predicts the weather for the season. We have been told to expect a dry spring because El Nino shut down rather suddenly a few weeks ago.

N. says: "Whatever! I just hope that La Nina stays far away from the Pacific. We need a good monsoon this summer."

Happy Spring!