Signs of Spring

As I've mentioned, we have to put up with quite a bit of gloomy weather here in western Oregon, but the payoff is that we get very mild winters overall. We've had a surprising amount of sun the past couple of weeks, and almost no rain during that time: daytime highs in the mid 40's, nighttime lows in the mid to lower 30's. We do get cold snaps from time to time, but most of those are only a day or two long; extended cold is pretty rare, one or twice a decade.

But along with the mild winter, another benefit is that spring flowers start popping up really early- nearly 2 months earlier than what I grew up with in Ohio. I noticed these popping up in front of another vegetarian restaurant as I walked into the Interzone this morning. Yep, dem's flowers. Probably daffodils, and obviously not blooming yet... but on their way.
Actually, snowdrops and crocuses are the first to bloom; I haven't noticed any of those coming up yet, but they're normally going full bore by mid February. The daffodils will be blooming in about a month. And no, this is not due to global warming... we just have really mild weather here. I have always been blown away by spring flowers in February since I moved here nearly thirty years ago.

Nearly Normal's is the restaurant, and it always looks like spring there. During the summer, their back deck is one of the nicest places in Corvallis to enjoy an outdoor meal. I'm not a vegetarian. I'm quite up front about the fact that there are just some kinds of meat I like too much to ever swear off completely. But meat has become an ever smaller part of my diet, and I'm quite sympathetic to the issues that concern vegetarians.