What an eventful winter! If it wasn't a snowstorm, it was a flood.
Like everyone in the eastern part of the United States, we got more snow this past winter than any winter in living memory, (well, my living memory, anyway). And the snow stayed, and stayed, and stayed. For weeks. Yes, it was inconvenient. Stomping through the snow to feed the cows twice a day was inconvenient. Hauling wood from the far shed and stacking it near the house was inconvenient, and so was taking the fireplace ashes to the compost, that was especially inconvenient. But the world, for a little while, anyway, was clean and beautiful. In spite of all the little inconveniences, it was great!   
We burned a lot of wood this winter, between the kitchen fireplace and the woodstove in the middle of the house, but we stayed surprisingly comfortable. Winter is a time to read, catch up on movies, cook pots of stew, and haul wood, and it was refreshing to look out at a blinding, slippery white blanket where the eye expects gray and brown. Better yet, after such a rigorous winter, spring has been record setting for its beauty, starting with a warm spell that jump-started the season. 
Perhaps a better visual would be to compare poor Shadow at the door in January: 
with Lea, on the deck, in March: 
|