We did our annual “spring-in-reverse” trip north last week-end, stopping in Berea, Kentucky for a night at the historic Boone Tavern Hotel. We have stopped here before and the tulips were always at the end of their season, with only a few late-blooming ones in bloom. Not this year – this year we hit them at their peak. They felt like “lens-candy.”

Berea College provides free tuition to young people who have come to the U.S. for asylum so they can get a college degree and also has an arts program that supports the folk arts of the Appellation Mountain region. There are several shops that sell the items that students make so I did a little shopping before having supper in the Boone Tavern dinning room.

We had an enjoyable drive on Monday, surprised at trees budding green and gold, fruit trees blossoming, and spring flowers blooming in Michigan. On Tuesday afternoon we had snow flurries and woke on Wednesday to…

Obviously the path from winter to spring isn’t always straight. The snow melted by afternoon and each day is getting a little warmer, but shorts and flip-flops will remain in the closet for a while longer. We still have flannel sheets on the bed.