Easter egg

Driving the roads on Sunday, ice-out contest on Woods Pond in Brandon. Waning moon in the western sky over the Adirondacks, its creamy, pastel-yellow color reminded me of an Easter egg.

The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather, from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones is a memorable crisis which all things proclaim.
Walden
Henry Davis Thoreau

big flakes

Reddish tinge of buds on the maple trees. Car washes open and active. Car with a canoe on top. Snowing beg flakes of March, not the small flakes of January/Feb.

crystalline nuggets

Signs of the seasons at the supermarket; corned beef & cabbage, matzo balls & gefilte fish. Snow disappearing from south facing slopes. Snow turning from the flakes of winter into the crystalline nuggets of spring.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Driving to and from work without using the headlights. There is a ride at Disneyland called Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I often think of that when I am weaving my way around the pot holes and frost heaves this time of year. I have a sore back now which I actually think is from the jarring rides I am currently experiencing on springtime roads.

scalloped

Snow is taking of scalloped effect as snow pack is eroded by sun and wind. Hauling out binoculars to check out a small flock of birds around the forsythia bush. Driving thru Middlebury, Girl Scout cookies for sale along the road. I bought some.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually melting the snow; the days have grown longer, and I see how I shall get through the winter without adding to my wood-pile.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

geese

Holy mackerel, flock of geese landing in a cornfield near the Otter Creek. About a week later I saw some geese sitting next to that same corn field. I've seen them sitting on frozen ponds before, but never on snow.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
Ernest Hemingway
Zen page-a-day calendar

thermodynamics

At this time of the year, there are interesting lessons in thermodynamics to be learned. Slight variations in temperature, angle of the sun, shade, reflection, etc., cause the snow pack to melt more or less rapidly. So why is the snow on the right hand bench melting more rapidly than on the left? I'm hoping some of the naturalists out there will hazard a guess. Shawn?