Locals thrown for a loop with cold weather

LYNN – Summoning all the optimism her seven years afford her, Breana Waters shrugged off Monday’s wintry temperature and declared she is looking forward to swimming at the beach.Linda Esher shared Waters’ hopes for warmer weather. She dismissed Monday’s cold morning and smiled about the prospect of seeing spring flowers sprout in local gardens.Spring officially arrived on Friday but coats, hats and even gloves remain the rule as April approaches. That is fine with Oleg Larionov, a native of Moscow, Russia who regarded the change of seasons with the fatalism of one familiar with a long winter.”What can you do?” he asked with a smile.The season’s start did not go unrecognized. Twenty-six elementary schoolchildren wielded shovels, rakes, pitchforks and wheelbarrows to help first lady Michelle Obama break ground on the first day of spring for a produce and herb garden on the White House grounds.Crops to be planted in the coming weeks on the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped patch near the fountain on the South Lawn include spinach, broccoli, various lettuces, kale and collard greens, assorted herbs and blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.There will also be a beehive.”We’re going to try to make our own honey here as well,” Mrs. Obama told fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington before they got to work on Friday. The school has its own community garden.The students will be brought back to the White House next month to help with the planting, and after that to help harvest and cook some of the produce in the mansion’s kitchen. The first harvest is expected by late April.Mrs. Obama said her family has talked about planting such a garden since they moved to the White House in January. A White House garden has been a dream of noted California chef Alice Waters, considered a leader in the movement to encourage consumption of locally grown and organic food. She has lobbied the White House to plant such a garden for more than a decade.”Fresh, wholesome food is the right of every American,” Waters said. “This garden symbolizes the Obamas’ commitment to that belief.”Associated Press material was used in this report.