Spring is Springing!

I've been a California resident since the summer of 2001, and, having grown up in a town that receives an average of 128 inches of snowfall a year (in 1995, we received 28 inches in 24 hours), it's been fun to tease my family back home about our mild, sunny weather.

But I've got to tell you the truth: Los Angeles weather bores the hell out of me. Ingrate! I'm sorry. Those of you who are still getting the occasional freak late-April snowfall are free to chastise me, but I really miss that moment in early spring when you get that first whiff of fresh earth, and that day when you are finally able to walk outside without a jacket. Those rituals are gone here, in a city where the most we have to look forward to is the annual month of fog, or the Santa Ana winds that will set the mountainsides (and my sinuses) ablaze.

Living in L.A., it's easy to forget about spring altogether. It surprises me when my mom talks about tilling the garden in April, because I guess I just expect them to be covered with a thick blanket of snow until July. To remind myself this year, I bought a bouquet of tulips to set on my dining table. We associate the tulip with Holland, but according to my husband, the Dutch swiped their tulips from Turkey, where the flower was hugely popular with the Ottomans. In fact, the most prosperous era of the Ottoman Empire is called the Lale devri, or Tulip era. And that is your historical flower trivia for the day.

I hope you all have a happy and productive weekend. Happy holiday to those of you who are celebrating!



P.S. I'm not a big country fan, but Patsy Cline's been in my head all week, so for your enjoyment, here she is with her ridiculous voice: