Signs of Spring

     We had some bitterly cold weather in early January,  but something that I've always loved about the DC area is that warm-ish days pop up in the middle of winter, breaking up the monotony of cold. Last weekend we were up to 16C, which felt positively balmy. I worked in the garden, cleaning up old plants from the beds, and biked to work without a jacket.
     There are about six weeks in mid-winter when biking is hard because it gets dark so early that I wouldn't be able to put a full day's work in before needing to go home. Better lights would help, but the truth is that lots of the forest trails are pretty deserted this time of year and I don't feel safe biking in the dark. As a result, I carefully pay attention to the changing amount of daylight. We are only five weeks past solstice but there's already plenty of light for biking, so I can make that my regular commuting method again. I have to skip it when there's ice on the roads, but that only happens a few times a month.
     And while summer seems far away, my gardening spreadsheet tells me that I can start planting things in two weeks - as long as the planting takes place under my grow light in the basement. Still, once it's time to play around with the potting soil and urge the little seedlings to grow, winter seems like it's almost at an end.