Happy Spring 2026

 At 9:46 a.m. local time yesterday the sun shone directly over the equator and winter officially became spring.  Finally.

After posting about the crocus a couple posts ago, just days later they were coming up all over the back of the back yard, tulips and other plants started to show and buds became visible on the trees.  Then, as if on cue, last Monday's winter storm dumped over 8 inches of snow on us, and could have been much worse if all the rain we got the day before was also snow.

Since then, temperatures have risen as the week went on, and will culminate today with temperatures reaching the 70's (~23ºC).  I've put on shorts for the first time this year though I may still wear a sweatshirt when we go out to lunch later.  It will moderate and get colder again starting tomorrow which will be about 30ºF cooler than today, yet overall we are headed in the right direction.

That's enough of a weather report.  A pretty typical spring in Wisconsin.

Anyway, as I like to do, I had a fire last night to commemorate the spring equinox, my first fire since the winter solstice.  Despite the steady melting all week, that was a lot of snow so the back yard was still completely covered when I went to work yesterday morning, and almost completely clear when I got home in the afternoon.  The ground was very wet, as was the fire pit, but I forged ahead with just a small fire to burn up the accumulated sticks and have a fireside phone chat with Mom.  The dampness made for a smoky fire much of the time, but I wanted to keep it small and short and was able to keep it going and burn for over an hour.  My apologies to the few crocus that I may have trampled, but I tried to be careful.

As I mentioned, I think we're going to go out to lunch here in a bit, and then probably take a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon to enjoy the warmth and sun.  I have a list of chores I want to get done this weekend and have already made a good start.  Tomorrow I want to spend some time in the kitchen.  We're out of baguette and I want to try making tortillas again, a fourth attempt but I think I'm getting better.  I'm not sure if I'll do both or not, but I do want to get some baking done to something is going to get made tomorrow.

I hope everyone is off to a good start to the new season.  We're off now to enjoy the day.