2 April

The sun is warm in the meadow today. After yesterday's winter-like reminder that spring is barely here, today is a reminder that summer is soon to follow.
There is a lone tulip blooming in the planter out on the deck. It is an early harbinger of things to come. Soon the entire valley will be jugged up with the impatient traffic of Tulip Festival visitors. The annual boost-in-the-economy called tourism will bring nearly a million extra visitors to the single lane roads around here. It means careful planning of outings, especially on weekends so as not to get trapped in a traffic jam. It's always fun to watch the local farmers with their huge bottom plows, slowly driving with their flashing lights on from field to field, causing even more delays. I always wondered if they did it to get back at the tourists, or just to entertain the locals. We used to watch the tractors slow the traffic across the two lane bridge down in town from the little league fields, as we sat in the chilly sunshine and watched our kids play, and watched the tulip traffic snarl. There was something pleasantly perverse about it all, the imp of the perverse, perhaps. And so we huddled to keep warm from the biting wind, and laughed at the antics of our children, and the farmers, and enjoyed the coming of spring, with its tulips and it's traffic.

Hope you're enjoying your day too.
all for now,
B