On the deck, with snow

Back in Maine for the first time in a month. Almost the first thing to do was put out the deck chairs, because, well, it's spring, and 60 degrees and sunny, even though snow needed to be shoveled from said deck, even though there's still a bank of snow surrounding the deck and hiding from the sun, and in the back yard still a lot of banks of snow, including one three-foot pile on the driveway left over from construction by the plow. It's a strange sensation to be sitting on the deck with snow still in the yard, as if a reminder that this winter may never go away. Maine wasn't even missed all that much recently, for one knew this discouraging winter would grip the land up here for a while yet. In Massachusetts, site of snow records, nearly every sign of our discontent is gone, giving way to crocuses and daffodils. Here, the woods and lanes still carry the reminders (although the hostas are bravely peeking out). Never has winter seemed so long (even though it wasn't - what we didn't get in December, we got in March). Those of us who don't usually get depressed, were.  And now: just keep the eyes up for a while, looking at the blue of water and sky, feeling the sun on the face, watching the season's first osprey soar.