A lovely day...too lovely

It is 58 degrees outside and still climbing. The sun is shining on our solar panels and there is no need for a fire in the wood stove. I went out and swept the sidewalks, clearing the walkways of debris from the fir trees next door and the scratchings of our chickens. The plum tree is blossoming and the daffodils are blooming. I knocked one of the new buds off with my rake and felt really bad. The flowers are such a delight when they bloom. The only problem here is that it is just mid February. Too early to be so nice for so many days as we have had. On the east coast the temperatures are plunging and Boston is recovering from another foot of snow. I heard one man on the radio ask:

Where is that global warming that Al Gore talked about?

It is really challenging when some parts of the country are being hit with record levels of snow while other areas like California are experiencing drought. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have had lots of water but not enough cold to allow snow to build up in the mountains. The snowboarders in my family are unhappy. The valley farmers will be even more unhappy when they have not enough water for their crops this summer. I have a friend, Jeremy O'Leary, who called it "global weirding" since the warming earth was causing weird weather patterns that meant some areas, like the east coast, would have extreme cold in the winter while locations would be wetter, drier or stormier than normal. Weather extremes seem to be what we can expect.

It does however, feel nice to enjoy the sun and since I am not a hot weather personality and the summer may be really difficult, I best get out into the sun while I can enjoy it.