Newspaper Annie wrote:
>
> I know this doesn't exactly pertain to NY history, but when do the
> signs of spring start to appear? (It's going into a story set around
> the turn of the century...)
>
> Rachel Hullett
> Annie--

I hope you don't mind, this is really my wife's email subscription, but
i look around a bunch.

Once when I was depressed about the cold & the short days, I took a walk
in late Jan and could already see the green on the buds on the trees.
They got bigger & bigger, tho slowly, and I think it was in March that
they started really bursting.  We are in a river valley (Troy NY, on the
Hudson near Albany) and it is a bit warmer here than on the windier
highlands.  But seeing this reaffirmed my faith in the seasonal cycle as
a process and not on-off like a light switch.  I now try to generalize a
bit less about it, too.  Note that you can also see signs of green in
the grass, especially if you dig under the dead stuff a bit & get down
near the ground.

Good luck with your story,

Jim