03.13.18

“March is a month of considerable frustration – it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.”
–  Thalassa Cruso

Our days have been filled with sunshine and star shine.  Why not start a little “yard work”, with visiting house guests to lend a helping hand.  Under sunny skies and a 39 degree temperature, Don and John stood in 30+ degree water and constructed a tripod, with a wench in the middle.  Their goal was to retrieve a chain on the anchor, which holds the buoy in place, and shorten it, before the lake level begins to rise.  The rest of us–including the kitties–sat on the dock to watch and shout out helpful instructions.  When the breeze picked up a tick, we climbed down the dock ladder, walked on hard-packed snow, and sat on warmish rocks exposed to the sun. It provided “entertainment” for an entire afternoon until we came into the house and thawed out by a roaring fire.  You take what you can get, this early in spring.

Yesterday, was the very first “cocktail hour” at water’s edge.  Conditions have to be perfect, this time of year.  It can be but 39 degrees, if there is brilliant cloudless sunshine and not a breath of breeze.  At 5:00, we put on our parkas and boots and walked over the hard snow down to the warm rocks, which serve as rip-rap to the lake, when it rises to full pool.  The kitties busied themselves beside us and we had our beer and goldfish crackers, and listened to the quiet of still water.  The only sound we heard was the tundra swans, somewhere out there on the water, and the crunch of our crackers.  As always happens with the time change, it was already close to 7:00, before I came up to put our dinner on the stove.

March will do her thing by bringing rain and spits of snow for the remainder of this week, and spring will feel light years away, but what a grand taste of it we’ve had!