Spring is here…sort of

Posted March 16, 2012 by Maya Bery

Forgive the tangent from more scholarly, library-centric posts, but I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger for the Admissions Office if I did not comment upon the weather in Boston.   You see, before I moved to Boston, I knew that it got a lot of snow.  This seemed self-evident – we are, after all, living in New England.   What I didn’t know is that Boston is very much a “four seasons in a day” kind of place, though usually the changes are spread over the course of one day to the next.
Take this past week, for example.  Last weekend brought with it the time change, clocks going forward an hour, giving us extra daylight at the day’s end.  This is a welcome change even if it does result in lost sleep because it means instead of getting dark at 5:30 (now – in the depths of winter, it’s pitch black by 5:00), it’s now dusk until somewhere around 6:30.   The beginning of the week brought the most extraordinarily gorgeous weather, the first tantalizing promises of spring.
Everywhere you looked, people were embracing the sunshine.  Crowds on Newbury Street.  People lounging on grassy patches to read, outer layers stripped off, puppies frolicking joyously, crocuses and daffodils bursting into bloom.   And then came Wednesday.  We were promised highs of sixty, but the mercury never crept above 45.  It rained, it was grey, the cold returned and my spring trench got hung up again after its brief outing in favor of my down jacket.
So for now, everyone has returned to huddle inside, and I am mourning our brief flirtation with spring.  Spring will return again, bringing with it an explosion in outdoor life (Bostonians seem to revel in their good weather because they know what a fickle friend Mother Nature can be), flowers, picnics, visits to see the ducks at the Boston Gardens, and all around generally great weather.   Until then, however, I will wait, patiently, and huddle in my cozy L.L. Bean jacket and be consoled by the fact that I’m not missing glorious sunshine by being inside a school all day.