While in Japan spring sneaked (or snuck, depending on your origins. In East Texas, use snuck) in through the back door. There were several spring wildflowers blooming along my trail this Easter Sunday in Austin. Although normally suffocated by the various exotic weeds that dominate any space given them, there are still a few lovely spots in the city where the colors endemic to this area may be appreciated.

My favorite wildflower is wine cup. I know; as a Texan I should vote for bluebonnet. But bluebonnets and paintbrushes are ubiquitous and collectively gaudy. The wine cup is subtle, rarely collecting in sizable aggregations. The color of the flower morphs with age, from a dark Cabernet to a light Zinfandel before it fades.

Although I have traveled extensively in Japan, I do not profess to have deep insight into the culture or the people. As a westerner (and a Texan, for God’s sake), Asia is blithely enigmatic.

There are certainly cultures in the world that strive to remain apart. The Japanese, for all of their western trappings, do not have to work hard to remain distinguishable. The radical differences in language are, in part, responsible. Although English is commonly seen in Japan, most of it is related to the perplexing English tag lines, slogans, and non sequiturs that Japanese marketing whizzes concoct. Otherwise, Japan is for the Japanese.

This morning’s weather radar image dramatically illustrates the veracity of the old saw.  Two major systems are sweeping toward the northeast. I visited Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago, and the city had already received a record-breaking 74 inches of snow this winter. More fell last week, and still more is coming.

We’ll see if  this lion calms to a lamb by month’s end. Given the ferocity of this winter, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Ted