When the Dawn Jogger returned home from New York last night, everyone was talking about how cold it was. The driver told her it has been 36 degrees Monday morning. Well, that is cold for the Bay Area but a mini heat wave compared to her last few days in Manhattan.

This morning, it was back in the 40s, and she traded the snowy white Central Park and its barren trees to the green grassy slopes adjacent to Lake Lagunita, which was sporting its first pond of the year, chock-a-block with mallards and geese. The big oak near the student housing was as bare as the Central Park trees, but on her way back to the neighborhood, she noticed quite a few liquid ambar tress with leaves clinging. Goodness gracious, it’s mid-January, leaves be gone…