Thursday, March 21, 2013

Spring at Summit Meadow?

March can wear the face of spring or winter




These last few weeks have had many days you could almost describe as balmy. You'd ski around a corner and a very warm breeze would greet you, just for a bit.

The sunny days and folks with smiles on their faces, the songs of the varied thrush, the first day of SPRING and
the return of the juncos around the feeders, it's almost enough for me to imagine blooming trilliums.

Then, we get 7 inches over night, the temperatures drop into the 20s and it snows like mad for a day or two at a time. 

I remember the local mountain paper's weather observer reminding us that the record  24 hour snowfall  of 22 inches was set last year on March 21 (funny, how I don't exactly  remember that...).

Although the lower elevations of Mt Hood see  trilliums soon, we seem to always be plowing way more snow than we'd like to in April and May, just to drive into the cabins.

Folks that know me don't ask when we will be driving in this year. It's the same answer every year. "We'll know when we're driving in for sure after it happens......"