It gets me just about every year, no matter how long I live here.

In the summer, we get gloriously warm and long days, daylight lasting past 9:00pm, offering 4+ hours of outdoor playtime after the work day is over.

However, inevitably, slowly but surely, the days grow shorter and colder. Before you know it, it’s dark when I wake up to go to work and dark before I leave work to return home.

Oh, there’s respite in the form of the holidays and skiing and, for the past few years, mid-winter trips to sunny places like Hawaii, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, but winter, all in all, can be trying.

And then, all of a sudden, in February, little green shoots pop up out of the ground, snowdrops and crocus and the beginnings of daffodils, and trees sprout buds and blossoms, and even though the poor weather might last a few more months, we have a good chance of getting stretches like what we see here to the right, and it always takes me by surprise, always seems premature, however welcome it may be.

Last I checked, spring doesn’t start until March 20th. So, enjoy these bonus spring days while you can, my fellow Bellinghamsters!