Half-and-Half at the Little Bitty

/ March 6, 2016
Snow, not snow in our backyard.

Snow, not snow in our backyard.

Yes, it’s only March.

Not yet spring here in Syracuse, N.Y., as our calendar will remind me for two more weeks.

Winter has been holding on hard, too, with several snow spurts and temperatures in the 20s (F).

That strength of the sun is stronger, stronger, stronger as the days get longer, longer, longer. Of that I have proof right in the backyard of my dear wife Karen and I’s beloved Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood.

Do you like our stripes?

Where the fence between Good Neighbor Tim and Lorraine’s place blocks the rays, the snow remains. Where the sun gets high enough in the sky to do its job, Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle has her grass.

Temperatures are said to be climbing into double-digits that start with 6 this week. The stripes shall be no more. Maybe I’ll go out there with Ellie B in my golf shirt and shorts and attempt to get a little first color on these pale winter arms and legs of mine.

Until the next snow hits …

Is it more winter or spring in your neck of the woods (or more summer or fall if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere)? When somebody says March, what season first pops into your mind? How high do the temperatures have to go before you’re outside in shirt-sleeves?

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53 thoughts on “Half-and-Half at the Little Bitty”

  1. Definitely more spring here in the US high desert. Many of the fruit trees are flowering as well as the cottonwoods. Daffodil sightings. Happy time of the year.

    Very nice essay. Thank you for sharing it.

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  2. Well March in the desert out here in AZ is spectacular! However I will be heading to PA/Ohio very soon to feel the colder temps.
    For me to have short sleeves… it has to be warm out! ( I do have thin blood though, living out here in the warm Valley of the Sun!) Am I rubbing it in just a bit???

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      • Ha! But we did have snow last week and i am actually glad about that – this year is moving a little too fast for my liking – hard to believe it is the 8th already! And guess what? I am painting the book room this month – so I will be visiting our paint people once again – thought of you when I was trying to decide the color!

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      • It has not been bad, not like Montana! The issue here are the downsloping winds coming off the Rockies. Oh, well. If that is all I can live with that. It has been dry. No snow for a month (or rain) so that has been great. I can’t wait to see the meadows in bloom this spring. It’s coming! Take care, Mark. ❤

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  6. Your snow in March will always boggle me. Spring Break starts in 5 days. It’s not even spring. What kind of Spring Break could include snow? The home improvement stores have been slammed all weekend, and coming home from church, we saw many a neighbor hunched over on their knees, planting in their yards and mending fences. The holly bushes in our front yard are abuzz with tons of bees; they block the front door with all their bee-ness. This is the time of year where all the ladies in the church band switch from trousers/jeans to capri pants until the end of October. Yes, you should get some sun on those legs before you get back to full time work!

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  8. Mark we’ve had an ‘easy’ winter, yesterday was 16c/61f! March is typically our heaviest snow fall month, so I’m bracing myself for that. I hope we don’t pay for our easy winter with a crappy summer. ❤
    Diana xo

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  9. I have it all worked out. 70s is short sleeves, 80s is sleeveless, 60s can go long or short, and 50s long for sure. Now, if I was in NY, this may have all been short sleeve and sleeveless weather but I guess I owe that to my blood having thinned and also the fact that if I don’t wear long sleeves when it’s at it’s coldest here, I never will!

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  11. It was really boiling hot here on the weekend, too hot to even go and swim. But days are getting shorter, it will be getting cooler soon. No snow for us though 🙂

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  12. Last week it was in the 70s. Yesterday it poured and poured and poured. They were predicting the Sierras were going to get at least 5 feet of snow. Supposed to rain some more tonight. This storm is moving your way – and it was quite a doozy. Hopefully it will mellow before it hits the East Coast.
    I won’t go out in short sleeves until the temps are above 75. Since living out here I have become quite the whimp, anything below 70 is cold, sweater weather. Our fruit trees are blooming out here, even the Wisteria has blossoms on it.

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  13. I’m afraid I don’t do Fahrenheit any more, but our nights are sub-zero and our days single digit. Not unusually, we haven’t seen any snow this winter, but we had hail yesterday. It will be some weeks before I can start planting vegetables in the garden, but at least it’s in sight now.

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  14. If it’s above 45 I usually run in shorts and short sleeves. Yesterday I went out with no coat because I purely forgot to put one on, although it was a little chilly for such antics. I am SO looking forward to spring even though winter has been so mild.

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  17. Our weather has been in the 60’s and low 70’s. There is a cold spell hitting today and for the next 2 days it will be in the 50’s, then back to the 60’s for awhile. I sure hope that is the last cold spell we get this winter.

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  18. March is so often a confused month. We have had such a lucky break with only 1 major storm this winter. Barely touched the gasoline in the snow blower. Gotta love that “Groundhog” this time. ☺ Signs of early Spring are everywhere, Mark. Enjoy it.

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  20. Well,here it depends on the day,more so than some places. One day last week it was 72,the following 32 with flurries. That’s okay it is just the last throes of old man Winter. Hop you have a bright and happy Spring.

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