Out with Winter and Bring On Spring

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying this pre-Spring weather that we have been having. Spring is my favorite time of year, enjoying when the warmer sunshine days begin returning after our cold and often wet and windy winter months. And with the time changing last week, the additional daylight in the evenings is always an added bonus for being able to enjoy the outside.

For the most part, other than the one cold spell that saw, island temps in the low 20’s for a night, it really wasn’t too much of a harsh winter out on the island. The north winds did seem like they blew harder during our northers this winter season, with several of them having gusts that topped 50 mph, and staying a consistent 25-30 mph for several days at a time. For some reason, maybe because of the open waters of west Matagorda Bay, the winds during these hard blowing northers just seem to blow excessively hard, and maintain those bone chilling speeds for a few days at a time.

And with those hard blowing north winds, the tides stayed lower for longer periods of time than they normally do during the winter. Usually, after a norther, the tides will drop low and stay that way for 2-3 days and then begin their rise back to normal. However this year, those dang tides stayed extremely low for 6-7 days at a time after nearly every norther, before coming back in. These low tides just make it very difficult to plan supply run days, never knowing if I’ll be able to make it through the narrow lagoon cut that leads into the bay and then town, or if I can make it back through the cut when it’s time to return.

With Spring quickly approaching, I’m beginning to see a few colorful island flowers making an appearance in the open fields. The prevalent flowers are small yellow colored ones that I see in batches throughout the island. There are also tiny white ones that grow on top of the wild pea bushes that re-emerge every Spring on the island. These pea bushes stand out in the fields because they are a darker green color than the rest of the island grasses. I know that before long I’ll also start seeing the colorful migrating birds that will be making their way north from their deep south winter habitats. One of these birds in particular, the Painted Bunting, is a beautiful feathered display of rainbow colors.

Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care, enjoy this Spring weather and have a wonderful day. And always be kind.