SPRING!

Yes, I have been hesitant to let myself think of true spring. Two solid reasons for this are 1) I love snow and late-winter skiing on the lakes (which did not happen this year for me) and 2) the cold and, especially, snow are likely to make encore appearances in March and April. However, this morning as I wheeled down my driveway on my bike, which I have been doing for a couple weeks now, a patch of purple popped into my color-starved vision field. Whoa! Jamming on the brakes, I left my bike with wheels spinning and skipped across the grass. Yes, crocuses were in bloom in the morning sunshine! Seating myself on the earth peppered with the old grass of last year and teasers of new green, my eyes savored the sight of the crocuses opening their petals... Spring!

Note: This was also the first day I rode my bike without mittens and went for a walk with no jacket, no hat, no mittens!