Spring's Here!

I declared March 11 the first day of spring. Well, that's 10 days before the official change of season but the weather was so spring-like, it really felt like it. Walking down the street, there were at least 5-10 people having bbq parties. The beer was out and people were in t-shirts. Although temperatures were probably in the high 50s (about 10 -15 deg celcius), it always feels much warmer when the sun is out. And to think this would have been a relatively "cold" winter day in Brisbane.

I guess I've become acclimatised to New England weather somewhat *shock* *horror* (me??!). Winters here can go down to -30 deg F with windchill and most winter days (days, mind you, not nights) hover around 20-30 deg F (about -10 to 0 deg C). This past winter has been relatively mild compared to last. We even managed to dodge one of the East's biggest blizzards in recent history and got a piddly 3-4 inches of snow for all that effort.

To end the nice warm spring-like weather on Saturday, we double dated with Ed and Mary Anne. First, drinks at the Tunnel Bar, very rustic ex-train tunnel converted into a bar - the entrance reminded me of one of the secret doorways to Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Then we had a yummalicious all-American meal at Eastside Grill - their menu comprised of lots of blackened (i.e. deliberately charred) stuff (blackened scallops, blackened tenderloin, etc). Hope it wasn't too carcinogenic!

On Sunday, we went to the Smith College spring bulb show. They usually force spring perrenials (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc) to bloom a few weeks before spring is actually here. A visit to the Smith botanical gardens is always a treat, but experiencing the colours of spring this early was quite exhilarating!