Pollen Days!

  Here in the Deep South, you may hear us bemoaning the fact that we have no winter (as compared to those cold months our friends to the north have to endure.)  Yes.  We know we are lucky not to have to shovel snow, remove ice and shiver and shake all of the time but an occasional flurry of the white stuff would be a wish come true!  Having to wear a coat more than the one time (two years ago) would be exciting!  Feeling the cold wind blow might be...well, you get the idea.  We would like a smidgen of winter now and again.  Instead, we have a day or so of chilly (sweater) weather then our next season sets in.  Nope.  I am not speaking of spring here.  Instead our season after our two day winter is called "pollen days"!  

  Pollen days can come at any given time.  It is a time when all vehicles in the Deep South match!  For a few weeks, no one drives any car, truck or van that is not yellow!  In fact, it does not stop there.  Houses are yellow, porch furniture is yellow, pets are yellow, people are yellow.  Everything is yellow!  Pollen coats everything and everyone!  There is not much you can do about it either.  This is also the time when a whole lot of folks are walking around bleary-eyed and sniffling.  Thankfully, I have yet to be bothered by the allergies associated with the pollen days.  Just to clarify things, however, it is not the pine pollen that is the culprit.  The oak pollen does cause problems, though, and that is coming next!  

  This morning, Mark and I made a quick trip to the pier.  The tide was low and since the wind was coming out of the west, the water was calm, albeit, yellow.  All along the edge of the marsh was a sprinkling of pollen. This sprinkling will soon turn to a heavy layer of the yellow stuff. Once the winds shake a bit more from the pine trees and the oak trees along the edge of the marsh, everything will look mucky.  Then, as quickly as this season befell us, our next will enter.  Summer!  Yeah.  We rarely have spring.  (Already, the temperatures are reaching the 80s on some days.)