Don’t worry about what Phil said; spring will come!

In these dreary days when the thermometer reads 4°F, but it "feels like -15°F" (exactly what my weather channel app told me yesterday), don’t forget that winter won’t last forever.

"Punxsutawney Phil” and Bill Murray try and escape the February woes.
Photo from
http://snakkle.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/bill
-murray-phil-groundhog-day-actor-movie-photo-GC.jpg

I’ve lived many places: Michigan, Costa Rica, Pacific northwest… well I’ve lived 3 places. And whenever I lived outside of the Mitten, I was disappointed by their seasons.

In Costa Rica, sure it was 50 - 70°F all year long, but, for me, there was little differentiation between the times of year. There was those few months when the green trees had some extra flowers thrown in there, when the machete trees (Erythrina berteroana) lost their leaves and kept their bright red flowers, but as a newcomer, the dry, wet, and wetter seasons weren’t all that pronounced. Maybe if I had lived there longer than 10 months, I would have grown accustom to the change of seasons, but I really missed spring and autumn.

A green-crowned brilliant hummingbird perches in a flowering
machete tree (Erythrina berteroana).

I never stayed a full winter in the Pacific northwest, but they definitely lacked autumn. Sure, all the Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and cedar trees were green all year long, but there was a definite lack of color.

Beautiful, but evergreen on San Juan Island, Washington.

Michigan never disappoints with its season, weather good or bad. Sure, I curse it often, especially when it keeps me from my adventures, but where do you get such diversity and colors every single year?


Winter 2014 at Deerfield County Park, Mount Pleasant, Isabella County, Michigan.	We are almost to the point where flowers bloom in May 2012 in Ives Road Fen, Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan (The Nature Conservancy).


Summertime at the prairie fen in August 2013 in Park Lyndon County Park, Chelsea, Washtenaw County, Michigan	The trees are turning in November 2013 at Ives Road Fen, Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan (The Nature Conservancy)