It'a Beautiful Peak Spring in Vermont, And Kinda Into Summer Now

Flowers blooming in my St. Albans, Vermont garden
this morning. It's peak spring! 

It is such a pleasure to be outdoors this time of year. 

The new leaves on the trees are now unfolding so fast you can almost watch them expand if you just stare at them  Fragrances of lilac and apple blossoms and the organic aromas of new growth make everything outdoors (except for me) smell so wonderful.  

The warm light of peak spring starts earlier than most of us get up in the morning and lasts well into the evening. 

Happy birdsong fills the air with eggs and hatchlings in the nests built in the past month or so in the shed rafters, atop outdoor lights and the crooks and crannies of the house deck supports. 

Take the dogs outside, and the roll around blissfully in the cool, sweet green grass.

Only the clouds of black flies that descend as soon as the breeze slackens takes away from this heavenly panorama.

I've always felt lucky to live in Vermont, where we're rewarded with such a glorious time of year after a long winter. I feel doubly blessed this year. The Covid pandemic has so far spared my family, my husband, myself. 

I've never taken springtime in Vermont for granted. This year, that's especially true. 

At this time last year, as the terrible pandemic took hold and grew, I wondered it that would be the last time I would be able to enjoy the season. Like everyone, I was at risk of losing the physical ability to fully enjoy the outdoors. Or lose my sense of smell, which is a real tragedy for anyone this time of year. 

The risk isn't over of course. But I'm still healthy, and I've had my Covid shots. So have my husband, siblings, mother, in-laws.  This all makes this sweet, colorful and busy season all the better. 

Even though it's the height of spring, I also have a broad definition of what constitutes summer, and to my mind we've arrived at that season. 

Oh, sure, we'll still have chilly days. There could still be a late frost. It's not unheard of to snow in Vermont this late in the season, though that's quite rare. 

Hosta leaves  unfurling in my St. Albans, Vermont
gardens this morning

But we've entered our first sustained period of what can easily pass for summertime weather. It got up to 78 degrees in Burlington Saturday, making it the warmest day so far this year. It could reach into the 80s later this week. 

We're lacking the rain we need, but we at least see attempts at the summertime ritual of afternoon and evening showers and thundershowers popping up in the afternoons and evenings. 

The showers will be few and far between and generally light for the next few day, but they'll be there. 

I see a familiar summertime pattern in the meteorological charts, too.  A big northward bulge in the jet stream is developing in the eastern United States this coming week. 

It will bring bonafide heat to parts of the East, with many places hitting 90, with of course those aforementioned 80s in Vermont by midweek. 

Another familiar summertime pattern are what a lot of us weather geeks call "ridge runner" disturbances. Those are little weather systems that ride the northern periphery of those northward bulges, or ridges in the atmosphere. 

As is often the case in the summer, we might well be in the path of those ridge runners later this week. If that's the case, those ridge runners could set off a few more of those scattered afternoon and evening showers and storms by late week. 

Please do yourself a favor and go outside and enjoy nature at its full glory. It'll clear your mind, bring you a measure of piece, improve your mood. Peak spring in Vermont is some of the best psychiatric medicine available in the world. And it's free!