It’s December! It came really fast this year. Yes, the years go faster once you are an adult, but I must say this year sped past really fast, for that other years for sure. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that it snowed here at our house? Oh, that was December 2001.
Today it’s cold, as it is in much of the Eastern US. It’s nearly to freezing and there is water up in the sky that is supposed to want to come down sometime today in the form of freezing rain or mix. It’s been drizzly on and off, but mostly light as a feather kind of drizzly. It’s windy too, and there’s a chill factor in the 20’s. It’s 33.4 degrees F. right now, at 2:30pm. The temperature is going down. It was 45 degrees F. this morning, around 7:00am.
It’s been colder the last few weeks, but this is the coldest DAY we have had so far this season. We can expect up and down temperatures for the next few months, then it’ll be the real Spring for us. Our winter is like winter/fall/early-spring — Up, down, down, up, up, down, up etc. Snow, rain, ice, freezing rain, slush, any of those kind of days, and very cold days with blue, blue skies, as well as overcast days in the 40’s that feel kinda spring-like. And more. Winter is the worst in Dec and Jan always. But even with that, we have spring flowers beginning to push up their green tops in January or February usually.
We do have Winter, but it’s mild. We do have Autumn, but it’s late. We do have Spring, it’s early and glorious in the South. We do have Summer, it’s long. I grew up in PA and Frank in MI. We both had long Winters and short Springs and short Summers and short Autumns. Here things are quite different. We both lived in Florida for awhile, and so appreciate the South for it’s “real” seasons 😉 We do get all four seasons, and they are just different than the North’s. Even the North can not claim a same season as all of the North. In MI they get more snow than in PA in most places, so my Winter of childhood is different in the realm of the Wintery weather, than Frank’s. Across different regions of a State this holds true too. In the South too. But the generalities of it all is mild winter, and good long growing season in the South. In the north there’s plenty of time to think about gardening … all the long winter long. Then get out there quick and grow some stuff before harvest time sets in. All the while Southern cousins are growing, growing, growing, sowing second or third crops of whatever … 🙂
And can settle in for a few months of crisp, cold weather, with some snow and/or ice here and there. It’s nice.