It was a long winter, unusually unvaryingly cold. It’s normal for us to have some very cold weather (anything below 20F is very very cold for this area), but then after a couple of days we always bounce back up even into the low ’60s. Not this year. We went from November until late February with temps hovering from 10-45. My power bill has never been so high (and I economize).

So spring has come at last. The cold kept all the things that usually bloom in February all dormant until fairly late in March, when suddenly everything burst open and we had a pollen-dust storm of unprecedented dimensions. The air looked like a smog of yellow. It even crept in through closed windows, leaving a thick yellow coating on everything. I took to covering the computer with a towel when I wasn’t actually using it. I’m still cleaning up.

This year the wisteria on my front porch suddenly decided to bloom – after nearly 20 years. Last year one thin and puny cluster of blossoms surprised me one afternoon; this year, there was a riot of blooms. And perfume. No, the photo isn’t my front door, but it looks very much as my front door did for about a week and a half.  – – – An interesting thing I noticed. I’d observed that the wisteria by the highways turns grey as it fades; my wisteria kept its vivid blue until all the blossoms had fallen. I suspect that wisteria is a vivid illustration of the automobile pollution that is dirtying our air along major highways and even residential roads – the grey being the dirt from the cars and trucks going by.