Happy happy Friday to all you bugs and bunnies of Healdsworld, USA! I returned from my Kauai vacation this week to a whole new local season-scape of sweet peas, poppies, lilies, roses blooming by the gazillion… even a bold early crop of baby pomegranate blossoms, emerging from their pom crowns (see below). It seems we’ve somehow reached peak spring already! And our community calendar for the next week or so is bursting with a similar energy. We can look forward to escapades like:

Why not tell the rest of the town about The Healdsburg Newsletter, instead of keeping it to yourself? You can send members of your circle this link to subscribe. (Or just forward them this email!) And like this, all the many circles within our community will start to converge into one big, happy blob. A well-informed one, at that. 🌀

While I was walking through the Healdsburg countryside with my dad yesterday, somewhat gobsmacked by the pleasantness of the day, he reminded me of an old saying: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Which feels very true, this time around the sun! After streaks of biting cold and searing heat in March, our wine-country weather has now lulled and leveled into a mid-70s paradise. We even got a teensy bit more rain from a light storm system last week — the softest of rains, really. Just enough to tickle our noses and calm our fire-season fears (for the moment) and let us procrastinate on watering our gardens for a day or two.

Now, I’m not much of a doomsday girl, but it must be said that one cute little pattering of rain won’t be enough to fill out our “water year” — Healdsburg has only gotten around 75% of its average rainfall for this time of year, according to federal weather data — nor enough to fix the low-snowpack situation plaguing California’s mountain ranges right now, which could seriously impact our water supply and wildfire risk this summer. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: “Only 2015, when snowpack hit a mere 5%, was worse — prompting the state’s first-ever mandatory water restrictions. While the situation this year is not as dire, the lack of snow, which typically accounts for almost a third of California’s water supply, still means less melt-off to replenish reservoirs, temper fire risk, and sustain rivers for fish and other wildlife.”

Indeed, there have already been a few small wildfires in our region since the hot weather arrived, including a 4-acre brush fire that firefighters put out along Rockpile Road near Lake Sonoma last weekend. Which is pretty rare so early in the season, according to Cal Fire. And an expert from the Public Policy Institute of California’s water-policy branch tells the Chronicle: “This is going to be an ugly summer.” But let’s not get ahead of ourselves — for now, it’s still spring, and the Earth is damp and soft. There might even be a bit more rain in our future! Here’s what the National Weather Service is predicting for Healdsburg this week: