Spring is in the Air!

Winter is finally gone, and Spring is in the air! Well, maybe not in some places.  But it is here in South Carolina.  For those of you who are still only dreaming of Spring, here are some tips for recognizing it.  The first signs will be the little bits of green that start peeking out of the ground, and buds appearing on the branches of flowering trees.  The changes happen quickly around here.  The Bradford Pear trees are always so pretty when they are covered in their white blooms.

But in a couple weeks, the real signs of Spring take over.  Those of you with allergies know what I'm talking about.  Pollen.  You can't escape the tree sperm, folks.  It covers every surface in sight with a sheen of yellow.  I'm lucky enough not to have allergies, but sometimes it gets so heavy in the air that it does cause some sinus problems.  I wait with bated breath all Winter long for the first warm weather that will allow me to turn off the heat and open the windows.  I love that fresh air!  Of course that means everything in my house also gets coated with pollen, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.  I have laminate wood floors, and I can Swiffer them clean in the morning and within a few hours there will already be another layer of pollen covering them.  When my dog Pixie spends a lot of time outdoors, she'll come back inside and she'll look like she's got a green tinge with all that yellow sitting on her black fur!  Poor girl.

But April showers bring May flowers and all that, so every now and then we'll get a good rain (or a big storm like last night) and the world will be washed clean of all the pollen, at least for a little while.  Except of course for the places where it pools and puddles.  Like the lines in the sidewalk of my front yard and the edge of my driveway. 

There is yet another sign of Spring that is hard to ignore.  The mosquitos.  I swear these things are alive and well all during Winter too, but we just don't notice them because we don't have any exposed skin for them to latch onto.  My father-in-law was in town this week, visiting from Oklahoma.  He seemed quite surprised when he saw a few mosquitos during his visit.  He used to live in South Carolina, but apparently his years in OK have caused him to forget how big and bad they get here.  They're practically our state bird. 

I hope all of you out there are enjoying any Spring weather you may be having.  And for the rest of you who are still trapped in Winter, have no fear.  Spring is on the way!