Wounded Winter

February 20th through 26th

Last week started off in a most pleasant manner. The 50+℉ temperatures and disappearing snow made it feel like Spring. The sound of snow goes, that just days earlier had filled the air, was replaced by bird song, brook babble, and quiet.

There was also the sound of rain. Monday night we got 0.6 inches. The level of Lake Lucerne is going up!

After the rain, there was a check of the local sugarbush. No maple tapping yet, but there could have been.

One of the portents to pounding spile into tree is the pulling away of the snow from the tree's base. There was talk among the sugarmen that we missed the first sap run.

Some plants mistook this faux Spring for the real deal and started to bud. Silly plants.

Patches of exposed grass led some to try to get in their first round at the NCC golf course. The first round will have to wait a bit longer. Some fairways were playable, but the greens and tees were still snow sopped.

There were also more subtle signs that the course may not have been open yet.

On Friday it snowed.

It's been said that a cornered, wounded animal is the most dangerous. Winter was backed into the end of February after having endured several fifty degree plus floggings. Viewed in this light, we should have expected Winter to lash out with ugly cold, biting wind, and a seemingly never ending snowfall. The warm roads melted the first few inches of snow. Then that slush froze, making walking extremely tumbly. The snowmobile trails are still open. The maple syrup season will have to wait another week or two.<br><br>-Nemo: Shovel, Shiver, Repeat