I think winter just might be ending in Florida

Saturday, Yesterday, I took my dog out for her morning walk as usual.   This time I was a bit later than normal, getting out at 7 in the morning.  

I had pressed the max clean button on the dying Roomba, snuck a buttercream chocolate from the valentine heart, and fed Mrs Dog so it was time to walk out the door.   After putting on a heavy leather jacket and baseball cap, I started down the drive.  It was at that time I noticed something specific in that the mango tree across the street was in full bloom.   Mind you, it was not just a flower spike here and there, but the tree was a riot of flowers.   When they open up, those flower spikes will perfume the whole area in a strong scent that isn't completely pleasant but it does say that the Mango Tree is Happy and is going to put out some fist sized fruit this season for the neighbors to enjoy.

As I got closer to the mango, the little lime tree next to it caught my eye.   I realized that the white spots I was seeing from across the yard were flower buds so it was getting ready to bloom too.  This was coupled with the hibiscus recovering from the iguana poaching the blooms, my orange tree and the new little lemon tree blooming and I came to the conclusion that we are in spring here.

That may be an empirical conclusion, but it just didn't feel like it was COLD this morning.   Certainly I'll indulge in a South Floridian's view of things and say whenever it gets below 70, it is cold, so at 53 I can justify the word.  However when I was out walking around, the air smelled like things were growing again, the breezes off the ocean that was two miles away smelled sweet, and the early morning sun was warming my black leather nicely.   There was even a flock of cherry headed amazon parrots that were chattering loudly over Hagen Park who were greeting the dawn and I hadn't seen many parrots that early in quite a while.

It just doesn't feel like winter any more.

I'm sure that the folks in the Northeast and in New England will chuckle when I say winter and 53 in the same breath when they just went through a snow storm that dropped a foot on my sister's head in South Jersey and added to the berms along the highway in Long Island, as well as knocking out power all over Connecticut and Massachusetts, but that would be what we get here.   Everything stops growing, you cut the grass only once a month or longer, and it gets cooler. 

So hold on a little bit longer up there in the snow belt, I think relief is in sight!