The illusions of spring make us believe that we’re on the home stretch to summer but the harsh winter winds quickly bring us back to reality.. It’s March 3rd… 25 degrees with wind chills that make it feel like 16… Happy Spring?
From the indecisive, ever changing temperatures of Austin to the steady predictable year round 80 degree weather of the beautiful British Virgin Islands. Two nights ago, on March 5th, I was bundled up in my North Face winter jacket and this morning I sit comfortably on my front porch in shorts and a vest in awe of my bird’s eye view of “nature’s little secrets”. I look across to the hills and the greens of the trees perfectly complement the blues of the ocean to create a picture as perfect as those seen in magazines. The work of God never ceases to amaze me. It blows my mind to think that, in a trip lasting a matter of hours, one could move from huddling in a winter coat to baring as much as decently possible in a bathing suit. Down below, straight ahead of me, sailboats glide across the sea as gracefully as an Olympic figure skater in hope of a gold medal. “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.” ― Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. To my left a large cruise ship sits at the pier, discharging thousands of pale tourists onto the shores of sweet paradise. Greeted by the tantalizing melodies of Caribbean steel pan music, they’ve already got more than they bargained for. Local elders line up, anxious to show off all the island has to offer like a new mother eager to show her baby off to the world for the first time. The sun kisses their pale skins as gently as it kisses the hills, fulfilling their quest to get a longed-for tan in their few short hours on shore. Their eyes light up with anticipation as they turn their attention from the land ahead to the waters on which they sailed, ready to submerge themselves in the warm tranquil waters of heaven on earth.
March 29th – back in Austin it’s 90 degrees, the sunny weather we’ve all been waiting for, but perhaps are not quite ready for – there’re no trade winds to give any relief. The heat is too much too soon as Mother Nature decides to remind us who really is in charge.
