My return to the Northeast brought a huge surprise yesterday – with the heat wave of 80 degree weather this week, all the spring flowers have appeared! I couldn’t believe that the forsythias and hyacinths are already at their peak. Needless to say, I jumped outside and took a few picks of the flowers in my backyard before they all disappear.

Spring in Bloom – Hyacintha, Daffodils, Forsythia and Gregory my Garden Gargoyle!

The second sign of spring I had was my run at Green Lakes Park today. I love getting out on the trails and away from the city for a bit to run off the stress after a long day. I was also pleasantly surprised that the park was not packed when I arrived, so I was able to stick to the lake trails today and still get a good run in!  The other surprise was that the trails were bone-dry when usually during the spring you come out of the trails with mud up to your knees.  However, I couldn’t decide if this lack of mud was a good thing or not… first, I love getting muddy during a run, it makes you feel pretty bad-ass that you survived all the muck pits en route, and second I have to admit I started to worry about what type of summer we’re going to be in for.  The winter was so dry and if the weather continues this way, the farms will have a hard time growing crops this year… Yes, this is when my ag-nerd tendencies truly shine through!

Green Lakes State Park.