Spring?

Finally saw a cabbage butterfly on April 30th, some three weeks later than usual and as much as six weeks later than during the warmest springs back east, when I once saw them in mid March...So that signifies the cold weather we have had this season and the delayed spring generally in these mountains. I saw a mourning cloak butterfly (they overwinter as adults)about a week ago, and that too was three weeks later than back east. The spring azures (little blue butterflies) have been out for two days and today I saw the first angle wing butterfly.Only in the past week has the landscape begun to explode with plant life, with colts foot and adders tongue (trout lilies)blooming, and beginning today they share the roadside with some wild mustard blooms and more abundant dandelion. The mountaintop canopy looks as if it has been lightly brushed with green, although here in the valley the forsythia and magnolia have been blooming a week.So it's been a mixed, hesitant season,hardly reflecting global warming this year except in its bizarre extremes. The news today reports a foot of snow in Minnesota and Wisconsin,so the atmosphere is certainly erratic. The extended forecast finally indicates sunshine and warm (65-70F ) temperatures,so I finished putting new shingles on the garage roof yesterday and soon Beth and I will do some exterior painting and landscaping that the house needs.