A Slow Spring
As I said a few weeks ago, March and April in Provincetown are sometimes like months 4 and 5 of Winter. We get some warm and sunny days, but most of the time it is somewhat gray, foggy, misty, and chilly (if not downright cold). This lingers even into May and June–this past weekend (5/20) it was in the 40s in the afternoon.
We are surrounded by the Atlantic out here, and it takes a very long time for the water to warm up after the Winter. So it might be 75 in inland Massachusetts in April, but it’s likely 52 here because the water keeps the air so chilly (granted, in the summer the water keeps us in the 70s when everyone else is in the 90s–it’s a give and take!).
But the slow, cold Spring means we get to see the seasons change in real time. There is no rush from Winter to Summer, which was the case when I lived in Washington, DC for 22 years. One day it might snow and be in the 30s and by the end of the following week you’re pushing 80 and the humidity is back. In just a few weeks we’d have a riot of crocuses, daffodils, tulips, and lilacs, all stumbling over one another as they rushed to bud and open. It was lovely to see all the sudden color, but it was a bit of a blur.
In Provincetown each variety of flower gets its own time to shine. There is a lot of overlap, of course, but each week a new flower goes next and makes its debut. It’s not all at once.
This time of year, our temperature doesn’t get too hot or too cold. It’s a long stretch of days and nights in the 40s and 50s. This means the flowers, after they first bloom, last a long time. There’s no extreme heat or cold to knock them down. So the daffodils and tulips last for many, many weeks. I love to shoot the same scene weeks apart this time of year, and see the new flowers that have emerged–and how the old ones have endured.
Right now we are in lilac season. On some streets that’s all you can smell, and I’m not mad about it.
Here are some photos from mid-April through mid-May. Lots of color and lots of slow change, which is especially helpful in a world that keeps moving itself–and us–faster and faster.
