Barn swallow fledglings wait to be fed, above, but this year swallows have been slow to get started on their nests here on the Pacific Northwest coast.

Spring finally arrived, at least for a day, but one month late. March 21, the spring equinox, is supposed to be the beginning of spring, but this year, like last year, spring only brought us more wet and cold weather until Friday, April 22, when clear skies and sunshine spoke to me viscerally: I didnt have to wear a windbreaker to walk the hundred yards to our mailbox or to hang laundry outside. 

You say, laundry outside? Well, I sort of cheated. We went to Death Valley, the Mojave Preserve, and the central California coast for several weeks and I did hang laundry outside in early April, but it was near San Luis Obispo, not here where Pacific squalls blow. 

On returning home, one of our first phone calls was from a friend who said, Youre in luck. Its been raining the whole time you were gone, but the forecast is no rain for the next week. I was able to hang laundry outside four days in a row. It wasnt always sunny, but it was breezy and usually thats just enough to get clothes dry. Otherwise, it was downright cold until that magnificent Friday.

If you need any confirmation that this is a late-arriving spring, bird sightings will provide you with reinforcement. Birds have no hearth to retreat to when cold blasts make the outdoors uncomfortable; birds have no supermarkets where they can purchase insects shipped in from South America. If you have somewhat obsessive-compulsive birdwatching friends, check in with them; they probably have lots of data to confirm your opinion. My husband keeps an annual  house list, where he notes each bird he sees on our property; for certain significant species, he also records the date the bird arrived. 

That magnificent Friday, April 22, was the first day we saw swallows. Wed expected them a month earlier. In 2010, they arrived on March 18. In 2009, they arrived March 13; in 2008, April 1; in 2007, March 15; and in 2006, March 28. So, compared with the last five years, the swallows are three weeks late. Capistrano were not.

Were also not alone in complaining about weather. Californias San Luis Obispo County has had the most rainfall in the last 25 years, both a blessing and a curse. Reservoirs are filled, the open hillsides are lush with grass, wildflowers and (unfortunately) poison oak. If summer is its typical California hot and dry, all that growth will be fuel for wild fires. 

Were lucky not to have the flooding and tornadoes that have hammered the Midwest, but we still can complain about the weather wherever we are. I chatted with a local vegetable farmer with 20 years truck farming experience under his belt. Hows it going? I asked, as if I didnt know hed had to replant several times.

At first I was cursing the weather and really angry, he said. Then I just started accepting it. Theres nothing I can do about it, so why get wound up? Of course, drinking helps! he said with a chuckle.

The unseasonable weather even interfered with our trip. After visiting friends near Coos Bay, we planned to drive straight east to Roseburg, past Diamond Lake in the Cascades, then south on the east side of the mountains all the way to Death Valley. We had snow tires on the rig and chains too, but when we checked road conditions, we revised our plans. Roseburg to Ashland to Klamath Falls and then south? No. We revised our plans again, thinking we could just head south on I-5. Even that usually reliable route (especially in late March) was problematic: The highway was closed off and on near Mt. Shasta due to blizzard conditions. Donner Pass crossing the Sierras: ditto. When Interstate 80 was open, it was five miles per hour a person could almost walk at that speed.

So, we continued south on U.S. Highway 101, getting beyond Eureka one day before the highway was closed by a landslide. Eventually we plowed through Bakersfield (luckily without a snow plow), Tehachapi, Barstow and Mojave and got to sunny, breezy, cool Tecopa, where hot springs gave us a welcome respite from driving. After that, we had one day of drizzle until we got to Ashland on our return trip. 

Id have no complaints about any of this if the calendar said it was a month earlier. Maybe I should just change all the dates. If the calendar said March instead of April, the last 30 days would seem normal.

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Victoria Stoppiello is a freelance writer who wishes the scientists had called it climate change right from the beginning because warming has been erratic. You can reach her at anthonyvictoria1@gmail.com.