March in Albuquerque is an adventure that carries us from winter into spring. We get a little bit of everything in March. We have gloriously warm and sunny days. We have miserably wild and windy days. We have freezing cold and snowy days. The weather changes constantly, hopping back and forth from winter to spring and back to winter again. March has dried seed pods, flower-covered trees, icy puddles, green sprouts, howling winds, early flowers, and intense sunshine. I love March.

We still get to enjoy little bits of winter in March. I love to go outside on a mild, sunny day that feels like spring and hunt for leftover winter. I look for dried seed pods, dead flowers, fall leaves trapped in ice, and birds that are searching for seeds. Quiet days like this are good for my soul.

To me, March in Albuquerque feels like a month when winter and spring are balanced. We have sunny days year-round, but in March we have just as many cold sunny days as warm sunny days. It’s very dry here, so our spring isn’t about melting massive amounts of frozen water like it is in other places, but the water we do have will freeze most nights and melt most afternoons in March.

Seeing both winter and spring in the same month reminds me that there’s a cycle to life. Change is good. Things need to wither and go dormant in the winter so they can bloom again with new life in the spring. I can get stuck wanting things to stay the same, but it’s eventually better to let old things die so new things can live. It’s easier to remember this when I can see the change happening.

March in Albuquerque is a little bit like a toddler – warm and soft one minute, and a raging tempest the next – changeable and frustrating – full of life, energy, and potential. I suppose it’s not surprising that I love March, because I also love toddlers. There’s no malice or guile in a toddler. March is the same. I don’t mind the energy of a tantrum or the wild winds of March. They quiet eventually, and the quiet that comes after the storm is different than the quiet of winter. The energy is still there. It’s just resting so it can play again soon.

In between the last snow flurries and wild winds of March, we get new growth. It only takes a few sunny days for the bare trees to suddenly become covered in flowers. The bulbs that rested quietly in the dirt all winter long emerge quickly and seem to bloom overnight. Crocus, snowdrops, hyacinths, daffodils, and hellebore are the March flowers we see most often here.

These fragile early spring flowers don’t last very long. They will disappear quickly, just like the March snow and the perfect 60 degree sunny days. The 80 degree days of late spring and early summer are just around the corner. The truly hot days seem to last forever here once they arrive. I’m always a bit sad when this happens. I enjoy the flowers and beauty of summer too, but I’m a spring girlie at heart.

So I try to enjoy the gorgeous March days and the lovely flowers whenever I can. When the wind dies down, you’ll find me at the zoo or the botanic garden or out in my own yard digging in the dirt, watching winter flow into spring. I hope you get a chance to get outside on a beautiful March day too.