The Ides of March

Cloud cover and dawn conspire to create a somewhat eerie feel to the air this morning, a sense of foreboding. In the East, the Sun is reaching mid-hogback, a sure sign of the approaching equinox. Somewhere in this direction, a lone bird chirps greeting. The Sun will rise about dead center of this view in another 15 minutes.


To the North, the usual scene is washed with pink and blue, and I think I hear geese overhead, but can't get visual confirmation.


Weather-wise, March has been quiet, having delegated its snowstorms to February. This week spring-like temperatures have eliminated February's white piles, urging bulbs and buds to sprout and people to shed the layers of winter. "Ides," however, is only half-way through; there's still time.

Evenings lately have brought the marvelous spectacle of the dance between bright Jupiter and brilliant Venus in the western sky. For a while, the Moon shared the view.

Turn 180, and the most russet Mars I've ever seen hovers over the hogback in the east, as if lit by internal rather than external fires. Still in Leo, as we see later in the evening as the sky darkens.

They say this year's spring equinox is early, at least for us! It falls on the 19th instead of the 20-21st. I wonder if the extra day of February accounts for some of that?