A Few Warm Days

Photo:  Britannica.com

and things just explode: apples, hawthorns and magnolias are blooming, trees are leafing out all over the place, tulips are blooming, along with violets and a few other things I haven't been able to identify.

And there are already goslings at North Pond -- I saw a couple of pairs of geese with at least a dozen little ones from the bus yesterday. There will be ducklings soon, if there aren't already.

And of course, after today we go back down to the 50s.

Umm -- Happy Spring?

Another Chinese hoax:

The Weather Channel reports:

Winter Storm Toby will spread yet another swath of snow, not to mention wind and coastal flooding, into the East through Thursday, the fourth nor’easter in less than three weeks and potentially one of the heaviest snowstorms this late in the season along parts of the I-95 corridor.

Winter storm warnings, where snowfall is expected to be heaviest, extend from eastern Massachusetts to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, including the cities of Boston, Providence, Hartford, virtually the entire New York City Tri-State area and Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, it would be a lovely early spring day -- upper 30s, sunny -- except for the damned wind, which has really got an edge to it this morning.

It's Spring, Part Two: Image of the Week

I've been under the weather for the past couple of days, big-time, but here's a fairly new one from Bernice:

The duck population at the Waterfowl Lagoon at Lincoln Park Zoo has dropped dramatically in the past week, as the winter residents have moved back to North Pond and South Pond. I expect we'll soon be seeing herons and cormorants again.

And I did see maples in bloom, which I don't seem to have any images of. I'll see what I can do -- maple flowers are fascinating, and they're generally the first to bloom.