Yesterday was the first day of winter… No! Wait! It was the first day of spring. Yes, that’s it. It’s spring. But the weather has certainly turned winter-like. I was thinking yesterday that it’s kind of funny that we say we have four seasons. Sometimes spring and fall don’t seem like proper seasons at all. They’re just transition periods between winter and summer and summer and winter and as such each can be either summer-like or winter-like at times.

But each does have its own distinct features – the colorful leaves of fall, the delicate flowers of spring. But we sort of get hung up on what we think the weather should be. It should be pleasantly warm but not hot or slightly cool but not cold and it disappoints us when the weather is not “right”. But this is what spring is. It’s a time of transition. Spring is like a baby learning to walk. It takes a few happy steps then falls down. It tries again and manages to stay up a little longer. But it can still fall down again. Until May when we can confidently put away our jackets and plant our tomatoes.

May is what we think spring should be. But this… this weather we’re having here today – the cold and the rain – this is spring too. Like it or not.

Oh, I almost forgot. This is one of my favorite things on the Internet: a map of the Earth showing day and night. It’s fun to look at it every day and watch the seasons change. It can also be useful when you want to know quickly which parts of world are asleep.