I was listening to the radio last week and heard that some parts of the country did not have a cold winter.

Their winter had been warmer than normal. That was well and good. However, if you just had to have a cold winter, Bainbridge, Ga., was the place to be. Compared to other years the cold was biting and it really didn’t care what it bit. Hopefully, we are on the outside of all that cold now, even though Easter is the last of the month and you can almost bet that the weather won’t start to straighten out until Easter has come and gone.

Another thing we usually expect around Easter is the blooming of the dogwood trees. You may see a few this year, but most probably not. February was so warm, followed by a warm March, that the dogwood trees bloomed in March and into April. The last of March when the rains came the trees were loaded with very pretty flowers. They seemed larger than ever. That rain and a little wind made the ground around the trees look as if it had snowed. The ground was literally white. They were pretty for a while and will be again next year. We are on the downhill side of the blooming for this year, and Easter is three weeks away. If it lasts, it lasts. If it doesn’t, maybe things will be in better line for next year.

Another thing that came along early, at least for us, was the arrival of the hummingbirds. We had a few show up around the 20th of March, or maybe even earlier because my wife and I were surprised to see them as early as we did. Of course we immediately put out the feeders so they would have something to drink.

Surely, they were tired and thirsty from the trip back from their winter headquarters. My wife now has four feeders in one dogwood tree and it is almost dangerous to get close to the tree. Those rascals will play Snoopy and divebomb you even if you are careful. It was almost dark tonight and one buzzed by my head like he owned the tree, and I guess he does during the warm months. They are hungry after arriving from the winter home because last Wednesday when it rained all morning the hummingbirds fed all morning even in the rain and you know some of the rainfall was pretty hard.

Wednesday’s weather was wet and not so very much more. But the Sunday before that saw some folks get their property damaged and nearly destroyed. One old boy from out toward Colquitt way had the end of his house demolished. The house was covered with metal siding and the hail knocked holes in it. Not just a few places, either. I dare say one could not put a sheet of notebook paper on the siding anywhere and not cover at least one hole, usually several. But that is what insurance is for.

Another thing the same fellow was telling me, and showed me a picture he shot on his cell phone camera. A field back of his house was planted in pines. The pines were small, only a foot or so high. The field not being tended had grown up in weeds and sage and assorted other stuff high enough to just about hide the little pines. Not anymore. The hail was so thick that it knocked down all the weeds and the little pines that have survived can be seen easily as there is nothing left there. The hail wiped it out. The pines looked OK, but who knows what the hail really did to them. Maybe they were insured also.

Now April is here and April brings showers. We could use more rainfall going into the summer. Maybe with luck.