For Pacific Northwesterners like me who spend a lot of time playing in the mountains but have homes down near sea level, this is the time of year that could make us a little crazy.
It is still Winter up in the high country, you see, and I spent last Saturday on snowshoes, breaking trail in fresh powder snow with four friends at an elevation of about five thousand feet near the Coleman Glacier on Mt. Baker.
At my home near Puget Sound, however, it feels like Spring outside. Temperatures have been in the 50’s lately, and yesterday, when I decided to give my car a bubble bath to clean off the road grime from last weekend’s mountain adventure, I realized that the tall cedars that tower over my driveway have already begun to shed a light dusting of tree pollen onto the car windows.
One day of my visual week, then, looked like full-on Winter, while another day was all about Spring. Rather than feeling disoriented or crazy, though, it struck me how flat-out amazing it is to live in a part of the world where one can be tromping in snow and photographing ice formations one day, and doing mild-weather chores around the house the next.
Just going out the door can be an adventure.
