It’s 80º as I write this at noon and the forecast is for a high of 82º this afternoon, yet there are still blooms on the blackberry briars. I already have it on my calendar for next spring to chronicle the various Tennessee Mountain winters. Hopefully, we are nearing the end of the cycle for this year, although we’re still 2 weeks from the Campground Decoration Day and I’ve bundled up for several of those events.

Every year I hear people (and maybe I’m one of them) lamenting that it may never warm up and ‘we’ll have to have a fire on the 4th of July’. But I think these cold spells have been happening so long that we’ve given them names – Blackberry Winter, Dogwood Winter, Easter Squall.

Perhaps after we’ve weathered the sweltering Dog-Days of summer we forget how late in the spring we wore our coats. And after the bitter cold of wintertime once we shed that coat we are reluctant to pick it up again.

Warm summer days inevitably arrive, heating the soil and spurring gardens to grow. I’m behind schedule this spring and my garden isn’t even completely planted so I haven’t worried too much about the cool nights. When I heard my neighbors saying their beans and corn were in danger, I tried not to mention too loudly that they’d planted early and taken that risk.

These blackberry blooms may mean a cold snap in spring but they will be replaced by juicy berries in summer so that’s the part I’m looking forward to.