While spring officially began at 5:24 p.m. Monday night, Tuesday marked the first full day of the new season.
With blue skies above and comfortable temperatures all around, many people were doing the same thing - soaking up the sunshine.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” said Linda Lentini, who was walking her dog in a New Britain park. “You’re like, 'yay! I get to go outside!'”
Biking, jogging and lots of people just walking were enjoying the first full spring day.
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“I will always be outside, no matter the weather. But the fewer layers I can wear, the better,” said Hartford’s Sarah Friedland.
Perhaps the truest sign of spring is fresh flowers which are plentiful at Berlin’s Cold Spring Brook Farm which opened about a week early this year.
“The weather just looks so nice right now we just decided to pull the trigger and go for it,” said co-owner Eric Peterson.
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Bursting with color, flowers at Cold Spring Brook Farm usher in the season and while there are no vegetable plants available yet, it’s not a bad time to start preparing your backyard garden.
“This is the time to be thinking about getting the garden worked up. Getting some soil amendments and compost into your garden,” said Peterson.
While some cold weather items like peas and lettuce might be OK to plant soon, planting tomatoes and peppers will still need to wait.
“You don’t want to see any nighttime temperatures below 40 for those types of things,” said Peterson.
Not far away, golf season was getting into full swing, literally, at New Britain’s Stanley Golf Course.
“Just totally awesome. I’ve been waiting for this,” said avid golfer Bernadette ‘Bernie’ Capella, who explains she’s been waiting six months to golf again. “Yeah, I’m not a winter person anymore.”
Capella was one of many golfers not only on the course, but taking advantage of Stanley’s new high-tech driving range, which allows golfers to use virtual applications to simulate play on courses around the country.
"To see the first golf balls being hit for the year is always exciting,” said course pro Howie Friday.
Winter is technically over but as we all learned just seven days ago, things can change quickly this time of year.
“You never know what you’re going to get in these parts, but I’ll take the sun any day,” said Friedland.
