Where's the Winter ?

Another warm March morning.   We may have had ten days of Winter in Dallas County, Iowa.  All other days were Fall or Spring.    I would like to tell you the importance of having full seasons.   How there is a certain rhythm to the snow and the cold giving way to the thaw.     Why it is so important to have two warm days in the middle of frigid January to call the "January thaw".

Indeed I believe in the importance of all those things, but I would be lying.   I will take this year's winter ever winter for life.   I loved the comfort that these days provided.     I'm not dumb enough to think it's all over.    It has snowed more than once at the end of April during Iowa's beloved Drake Relays.

I have loved that I have moved so little snow.   Most of it just melted away from the lane.   I loved the calm that these mild days have brought.   But I'm not dumb enough to think it's all over.   During a warm April 30th a few years ago I planted 100 peppers plants and 100 Tomato plants.    Early the next morning we had a frost and I lost all 200 plants.

I don't care how mild this winter has been.   I'm not planting my salsa garden till after May 2nd.