My mind tells me that winter is far from over. There will likely be more snows in Virginia. The possibility exists that we could see another big one in the Roanoke area.
In spite of that my soul tells me that it is getting time for spring. On our most recent trip to the Carolina coast, we quickly ran out of the snow after crossing the border between North Carolina and Virginia.
I was reminded of one spring when we hosted German exchange students. It was in April, and Roanoke got eight inches of snow. The German students were keen to see some spring so we loaded everyone into the car and headed to Charlotte, NC. I still remember coming down the mountain from Fancy Gap to the already great green plain of North Carolina. That day it was smooth going on Fancy Gap. Sometimes winter hangs along the mountain there.
Most of all I remember the giant pansies which were everywhere in Charlotte. It was as if Charlotte had become the center of the pansy world. We have our own pansies in NC now. Watching pansies grow is one of treats of winter in the south. While flowers help with winter, the sun is my strong ally in the battle against winter.
One of my tactics for forcing winter to retreat in my mind is to find a warm sunset whose colors overwhelm the senses. If you can catch the sunset in the right spot where you are protected from breezes and perhaps warmed by the sun, you can almost imagine that spring is a little farther along than it is.
While the sunset picture with this post involved some cool breezes, the color have stuck in my mind and are a welcome relief to all the flashbacks of Roanoke snow that seem to haunt my dreams.
For today, I plant to enjoy the weather and maybe drop my boat in the water so I have a virtual trip to the Inlet and remember those warm waters which I hope arrive much sooner than expected.
Even dinner at T&W, the local fish house, helps fight those winter thoughts. It certainly beats the snow that happened last weekend.
