RED MAPLE TREES ARE IN BLOOM

NUMEROUS INDIVIDUAL RED MAPLE FLOWERS IN A CLUSTER...

...ARE QUITE EFFECTIVE IN MASS

Friday, 8:30 AM.  43 degrees at the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind variable and calm, the sky mostly clear, with some haze, the humidity 85%.  The barometer is falling, currently at 30.08", forecasting highs in the 50's and 60's for today and the weekend, then mixed skies and cooling into the 30's and 40's, with a chance of rain on Thursday.
   We went to Duluth yesterday for a doctor's appointment and the shipping season has started, with grain ships, the big lakers, being loaded from mammoth waterfront silos. Took a few photos while crossing the bridge but they  didn't turn out.
   For most of the past half century I have considered the flowering of the red maple (Acer rubrum) as the earliest true harbinger of spring.  There is a red maple on Manypenny avenue and 8th St. that I watch daily for it to bloom, and yesterday was the day the buds opened.  Pollen is not yet being shed, so flowers are not quite at anthesis, but I'll take it.
   Red maple bloom time can vary quite a bit from year to year with the spring weather; April 17 in 2015, May 13 in 2014.