Since I’m not going to discuss the Super Bowl in this blog posting, I believe I’ll take Professor Higgins’s mother’s advice and stick to the weather and my health.  My health is fine, thank you very much, so that pretty much leaves us with nothing but the weather.

This posting will not come as welcome news for people who are still having to shovel snow and who are looking down the barrel at six more weeks of winter.  I’m not good at doing winter which is one of the reasons we’re snowbirds.

This past weekend it was dreary in Tucson.  We had four days of rain—a lot like Seattle weather only wetter.  Those four days of rainfall amounted to 2.5 inches of rain right here in our neighborhood.  It was a soaking rain that came in bursts and one that will make for gorgeous spring time flowers out in the desert.  Unfortunately some of the streets in town–most notably Tucson Boulevard– were built along the routes of what were once and on occasion still are washes.  Last weekend was one of those times when unwary drivers needed to heed flash flood warnings on Tucson Boulevard.

But then, Monday morning dawned clear and bright.  The sun came out. I’m told that by the end of the week the weather will be in the eighties.  And what do people in Tucson do in that kind of weather in February?  They bring out the bedding plants, of course—brand new petunias, geraniums, and snap dragons.

Our plants came home from the nursery yesterday afternoon in several colorful flats where they stayed overnight before going into the patio pots today.  Within ten minutes of those bright red geraniums showing up, two butterflies did, too.  Obviously they’ve been prowling the neighborhood scanning for flowers.  And, within half an hour of the first butterflies, our first hummingbird of the season showed up as well.

I know there are Pacific Northwest specific hummers who don’t migrate.  In fact, we have a pair of them living in our Bellevue neighborhood who visit our feeder every day.  When the big freeze came in early January, we had to bring the feeder into the house every night to keep it from turning into a gigantic ice cube.  While we’re down here being snowbirds, one of our house sitter’s regular duties includes making sure the feeder doesn’t run dry.

Right now it’s sunny outside.  I’m going to turn my computer screen to full bright and go outside to work.  By the way, I’ll also be barefoot.

Neener, neener!

Sorry, folks.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it.