Charlie’s Photo of the Week: Spring is Almost Here

March is a month of transition! I believe that the old saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” still remains the shortest and most accurate of ways to describe it! However, let’s amend the general timetable of that old saying to a more realistic view.

Many of us living in Northwest New Jersey realize that March is more safely endured as a “day by day” experience. An experience subject to some pretty wild swings in temperature and demeanor! The general concept of weather going from harsh to mild is still valid, BUT, and this is an important, BUT, it is in no way a smooth gradual crescendo of ever warming temperatures!

Baby groundhogs: A reminder of spring. Photo by Charlie Fineran.

As a matter of fact, referring back to the day by day experience, one can call March’s days CHAOTIC!! Hot to cold, cold to hot. A tease of gentle balmy Spring breezes presenting a hopeful sense that Spring has Sprung, only to be dashed and discarded and changing in mere hours into the reality of a powerful Northeaster blizzard! This is classic March weather. We can’t change it. HOWEVER, to aid in comforting your concerns: We are nine days into March. Days are getting longer and Spring is around the corner!

OBSERVATION: I just hope the Non-Winter we have been experiencing hasn’t tainted our realistic expectations of what March can offer! WE HAVE A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

Green trees and bear cubs near Millbrook Village. Photo by Charlie Fineran.

Story behind the Photo of the Week:

Every March, I send out an email reminding people that Spring is Coming!!! I offer hope – “YOU ARE ALMOST THERE!!” I am trying to bolster and rally my friends who physically are here, BUT, their hearts are in San Fran-, I mean Florida. Any place warm!!

These messages always contain photos of colorful flowers and new generations of wildlife!! Well, consider this as my message to all of You.

I always try to keep the locations of my photos within Warren County, but I made one exception – BRANCH BROOK PARK in Newark during the Cherry Blossom Festival. This is a famous celebration at a nationally-recognized site with one of the largest collections of Cherry Blossoms in the World. Even bigger than Washington, DC! AND it is only an hour away!! This is a great destination for a short day trip from Warren County.