When I got up this morning, I saw white things flying past the window. Snow or cherry petals?

It was snow. The wind has been the dominant weather feature lately, blasting, roaring, and bringing all sorts of precipitation. It comes from the northwest, blowing a storm from the Gulf of Alaska which dropped new snow on the Cascade crest. I drove to Yakima today and had a wonderful view of billowing cumulus clouds with violet-gray bottoms against the soft green hills. Veils of rain and hail swept down, and the truck was buffeted by the downdrafts. The world is filled with air, moving like liquid over the mountains in currents and eddies and swirls. The wind is a river running high in the spring.