Is it Spring Yet?

 I just want to let you know that we had another two inches of snow during the day yesterday - there was probably more than that, but that was what I measured this morning after some blew away with the incessant wind we've had yesterday, overnight and into today, plus there was some gradual melting early this morning as the temperature rose before I measured at 9 a.m. The ground is still white here, but I went to Cabot this morning and there was very little snow in the village and in Lower Cabot, there was even less and the broad fields below that used to be the Gould farm and near Amanda's Greenhouse, were green and springlike! What a difference.

The road over the Plain is pretty darn good for this time of the year. It is slimy with the snow and there were the remains of some minor drifts in places, but no big muddy spots or really bad washboard. I managed to hit a few potholes, but avoided most of them, and even those were not wheal-breaking deep. Just because I didn't want to get my car any muddier than it already is, I came back by way of Marshfield and that left only the short mile from Route 2 to my house on unpaved road. Each time I go over West Shore Road I am thankful for both the Danville and the Cabot road crews. They have done a remarkable job of keeping that road in decent shape through this prolonged mud season.

I picked up a really nice forsythia at Cabot Greenhouse and Nursery that I will plant in memory of Fred. Whenever we went to Maine in the spring, which used to be nearly every year, the bright yellow forsythias always caught his eye. We said it was like having two springs - the one we experienced in Maine and a few weeks later, the spring that finally came here at home.  Fred had urged me to get a forsythia to plant here, but I was always reluctant because the weather is so harsh; however, I have seen a few around, and Vicky at Cabot Greenhouse assures me what I got today is a hardy variety that will do well here. I'm sure Fred would be happy that we finally have one.

I had a generator installed yesterday. What a miserable day to have to do that! But the two men from Brook Field Generators said they were ok with it, and they actually got it done in record time. Now the propane tanks have to be set in place and hooked up - then I'll be all set. My family didn't want me to have to build a fire in the wood stove to keep warm if the power goes out, and that was fine with me. It is just one more thing that Fred and I had talked about doing but hadn't gotten around to. We always seemed to have other, more important things, to talk about and set in motion. Besides that, we both were in denial about how time was passing by so quickly and that we were both getting older and doing some of these things wouldn't be as easy in the coming years. I'm glad that now the only wood fires I will be starting will be for pure enjoyment and ambiance, not from necessity.