Monday's snow helped remind me that spring is right around the corner. After my marathon day on the air yesterday I grabbed my new camera and took a few photographs in my Cary neighborhood just as the clouds started to break and the final flakes faded away. I was drawn to the scarlet maple in our front yard. Soon those red dots you see against the blue sky in the photograph will be lush leaves. These cold and challenging days will fade. The warmth of a new season will break loose before you know it. Let’s start planning for some fun activities this spring.

Friend Kristen Roberts showed me a wonderful book yesterday: Guide to Sea Kayaking in North Carolina by Pam Malec.   Kristen and my wife Cindy are already planning to take one of the kayak journeys outlined in the book – from Swansboro to Hammocks Beach State Park on Bear Island. Kristen and Cindy have seen bears on adventures in the Rockies but what about North Carolina? I did some research and discovered that bears are not usually found on Bear Island. The original name was Bare Island for its lack of vegetation. If you’re wondering the island is three and a half miles long and about a half mile wide. Todd Miller of the NC Coastal Federation once described Bear Island as the perfect beach – “the way things used to look on the coast before all the bulldozers and beach houses arrived.” How many of you have been to Bear Island?  What was it like?

What kind of spring fling are you planning?  I will concentrate on some of North Carolina’s natural jewels over the next several weeks.