It's cold but it's not freezing!

We come to Hilton Head Island every winter to escape the bitter cold of Western New York. I keep weather reports for both locations on my Google desktop so I can monitor the temperatures in both places. Like all snowbirds, I gleefully celebrate the snow and frigid temperatures that I am avoiding by being here.

Today, for example. At 7:30 am it was only 5 degrees (without calculating for wind chill) in New York but a tolerable 30 degrees here - and that's very cold for this neck of the woods! I layered on a couple of fleece shirts and my down vest and took my usual 40 minute walk.

At 12:30 Al was ready for a walk; it was now 13 degrees back in New York and a balmy 47 here! We bundled up and set out, quite comfortable when we were on the sunny side of the path. Unfortunately, probably only half of the distance is in the sunshine, the rest in shade, and Al felt the cold.

We were cheered, however, at the sight of the azalea blossoms. The shrubs in the sunshine are bursting with the first color of spring and those in the shade are ripe with buds promising to bloom in the coming weeks.

Yes, it may be cold here, but it's not freezing. Spring is in the air!