Weather Puts Spring in the Step of Tourists, Residents

Spring got off to a sunny start during the weekend, encouraging Ventura County residents to flock outdoors and enjoy the clear skies, light breeze and warm temperatures.

The beaches were brimming with surfers and tourists, while the parks were packed with couples and children. And still others geared up for gardening season, spring cleaning and spring break.

Saturday at 5:46 p.m. was the official start of spring, as marked by the vernal equinox.

“The sun crosses the celestial equator, and that’s why we call it spring,” said Hal Jandorf, who teaches astronomy at Moorpark College. “There are 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.”

Starting Sunday, daytime lasted longer than night--but only by a couple of minutes.

Jasmine Manoukian was more interested in celebrating her 5th birthday than the start of the new season. At her party Sunday afternoon at Conejo Creek Park in Thousand Oaks, Jasmine painted her name on a cardboard pink castle. Wearing a tiara decorated with star stickers, she said to her fellow princesses: “We need to paint the whole thing, OK?” “Yeah, then we’ll have a Sleeping Beauty castle,” responded her playmate Nicole Ghazarian, 5.

Just then, a small gust of wind pushed over the castle spires, and Jasmine’s father rushed to pick them up.

“We’re happy that spring’s here, and the weather’s nice,” Raffi Manoukian said. “But it’s a little windy. Our castle has fallen apart a few times.”

That wind should be gone today, when patchy morning fog should make way for sunny skies, according to meteorologist Guy Pearson of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Highs today will be in the upper-50s to mid-60s, and the lows will be in the 40s. Tuesday there will be scattered clouds, with a slight chance of showers.

“This weekend was a typical spring weekend,” Pearson said. “The temperatures were pretty seasonable, and there were mostly sunny skies.” Sunday’s highs were in the low- to mid-60s throughout the county.

*

But not everybody looks forward to the warmer temperatures and the start of springtime. At least one visitor to a Thousand Oaks flower show said she’ll miss the winter weather.

“I like the fog, the clouds, the cool weather,” said Sherry Reynolds of Thousand Oaks. “And you don’t get much of that here in California. Flowers are the only things that redeem the season.”

Her husband, Bob Reynolds, said it’s not the flowers that he likes.

“You can’t eat them,” he said. “I’m into vegetables, personally.”

Reynolds spent much of the first weekend of spring working in his garden, where he grows cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and beets.

Mary White, an avid gardener and bird-watcher from Newbury Park, also attended the flower show, organized by the Westlake Village Garden Club. She walked from table to table, smelling the lilies, sea lavenders, poppies, orchids and tulips.

“Everything wakes up in the spring,” she said.

*

“If you plant bulbs or seeds in the fall, they just come alive in the spring.”

White said she loses herself in her garden every spring.

Others lose themselves scrubbing, mopping and dusting with the start of the new season. Ventura resident Vickie Garrett bought a broom and other cleaning supplies at the Smart & Final store in Ventura on Sunday.

“Spring cleaning is what spring’s all about to me,” she said. “And being able to open the windows, air out the house and clean my kitchen and bathroom. That’s what spring is.”