02.26.14  Lots of new snow, 5 degrees, bluebird sky, and the first robin.  I could hardly believe it in this arctic cold we are once again enduring.  We drove by the tree at least four times, so I could capture his image, proof and hope that one of these weeks, winter will end and spring will come.

I found myself remembering my favorite weather event of all time–Boston’s blizzard of 1978.  It happened in early February and spring took forever that year to arrive.  For over a month, we had a broom handle sticking out of the snow bank at the end of our drive, with a bucket hanging on the end for the mailman’s delivery.  Our dining room windows were drifted over, darkening the house for weeks, though there was this kind of brilliant sky following the epic storm.  I was early in my pregnancy with Sarah, but dragged the two older girls on a plastic sled to the food drop in town, loaded up our groceries, and trudged the three miles home along the road, closed to all motorized vehicles for over a week.  One afternoon, under a crystal blue sky, I pulled them in the sled to the library in our little town.  It was a beautiful old brick building, with an enormous fireplace in the center hall, and this Walter Firle “Fairy Tale” painting hung over the mantle.

 All that long winter and late spring, I wondered if this new little baby would make me the mother of three girls.  When she did, I found a print of “Fairy Tale” and it has hung in my homes for 36 years.  It always brings me back to one of the happiest times in my life.  Funny, how a bluebird February snow day can take me back to those days, the bright, hopeful spring of my life.