Larch emergence, Erisman

It sure didn't feel like May this morning, with a 40-ish chill in the gray air and, OMG!—hey, I might now be at full retirement age, but I still try to keep up with communication innovations—a bit of ice mixed in with the rain. Despite it not being a day for a walk, I went anyway, lured into the nearby Erisman preserve by the promise of possible warblers and wildflowers. Except for the occasional tattoo of sleet on leaves, the woods were largely bird-quiet, and the blossoms, sparse as they still are this cold spring, were mostly closed. The trees, however, continued their steady opening, and when I reached a stand of Larches in the deep woods, I saw that they bore a new crop of green needles. Cold weather to the contrary, the greenery is a sign that things are actually moving in the right direction.