vernal equinox
According to the Farmer's Almanac:
The Vernal EquinoxFrankly, the science of it is not as interesting to me as the fact that the days are getting longer and the days are getting warmer. Disclaimer: My garden does not look like this yet...these are photos I dug up from past years, but they make me lust for spring. I can't wait to see what my renovated garden looks like...new hostas everywhere!
Ah, spring! This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna. The word equinox is derived from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
And here is the list published by the Star Tribune...the facts of the winter of 2013-14.
17: consecutive days of subzero lows
21: days with lows below zero in an average year
May 3: Last snow of last winter
Nov. 3: First snow of this winter
6: More weeks of snow than usual
9,361: Minneapolis cars towed for snow-related violations
23: days with windchill warnings
Minus 25: temperature at which windchill warnings are issued
6: weather-related school closings in Minneapolis and Rochester …
7: … and in Duluth
700: frozen home water pipes in St. Paul’s Regional Water System
159,463: heating failure service calls to CenterPoint Energy
225: frostbite cases at HCMC (Jan. and Feb.)
95.7: percent of Lake Superior iced over
61: inches of total snowfall as of March 19
24: inches of snow at its greatest depth, Feb. 21
It all adds up to the harshest winter in 30 years. You can see why we're excited.
At 11:57 a.m. Thursday, spring will begin.
It's been a week for good news and sad news. A tragedy in the family of my cousin. Wonderful news for Karen in the cancer department. Harvey got through his surgery in fine shape and we are wishing him a rapid recovery. The Buddhists say life is ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows.
Regis and I worked at the tax center yesterday and man, were people cranky. Holy crap. I had to go sit in the hall for a while and do some relaxation therapy. Regis says this is how it goes. In the beginning, the people who are getting refunds come in and they're happy. In the end, you get the folks who have procrastinated (sometimes for years) and they are miserable and angry.
I haven't gotten very far in my organization project. Not since February anyway. I'll get back to it. I have slacked in the exercise department, too, but today is the day to get back to that. Regis and I are going to exercise together and tonight I'll go back to the killer class at the YMCA.
We had a wonderful welcome home from Texas dinner on Sunday night with Betty and Tom. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day we had a meal of corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, and lots of Irish whiskey. As always when we get together, there was lots of laughter and many stories told. So good to have our friends back in town.
Woodrow and Gus are up to their usual shenanigans. I haven't gotten my hammock chair hung up yet. I think I'm going to start dance walking for exercise.
Look up to the sky at 11:57 a.m. this morning. Be grateful for spring and your other blessings. Do a little dance walking yourself...in honor of spring.
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