Officially, the first day of spring starts tomorrow. By most accounts, spring in North Texas started last weekend, as the annual display of beer vomit and beastly behavior known as the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dallas mixed Irish stereotypes with alcohol poisoning in what were absolutely joyous outdoor temperatures. Try telling that to local weather patterns, though: we’ll be pushing near-freezing temperatures by the weekend, and we still have two weeks before any last-minute frost breaks records.
On the local wildflower and tree bloom department, we’re still just starting out, with local bluebonnets just starting to emerge and a disconcerting number of trees still bare of so much as a sprig of green. In the meantime, though, have a flowering dogwood. Between these and the local blooming magnolias, this touch of early angiosperms gives you an idea of what spring might have been like in the early Cretaceous.