May in January

This afternoon brought temperatures near 70--not typical winter weather in the Mid-Ohio Valley, not that I heard anyone complaining. A colleague rode his motorcycle to and from work, a friend and I hiked the trail in back of the college this afternoon, and I was able to drive home with the car windows down and spend the first part of the evening on the porch checking e-mail. This collection of phenomena is much more typical of finals week than of the third week of the term beginning in January.

I kept reminding myself that there was work to be done, but there were bird feeders to be filled, and wandering the yard to see what's happening was of course a necessity. Crocus and daffodil foliage is up in the front yard--no surprise--but unless my eyes deceived me, feather grass, nisella tenuissima, is showing new growth.The pink muhly grass isn't showing green yet (probably a good thing), but I am being optimistic that it will live through the winter and create a pink haze late next summer.

Tomorrow's highs are predicted to be in the sixties again, but we are looking at temperatures in the teens by the weekend, and snow is likely for Saturday.

Weather is the Valley is never boring.