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.

Fishing in the slurry

The seagull stands on a rock, intently looking at the surf. The sea for a hundred yards out is a slurry of floating ice and thick water, due to the unrelenting cold. When a wave comes in, the seagull flies a couple of feet straight up, just out of reach of the water, then settles back down. The waves must be loosening food of some sort from the rocks; why else would the seagull repeat his dance over and over? Then it picks up a strand of seaweed and carries it out of sight. My guess is that there's a mussel attached.

Hard work making a living on the frozen ocean shore.

(After)(Before) The Winter Storms

An interlude occurs in the endless parade.

                                                                        Sunset
                                                           
                                                               The islands light up.

                                                 A few minutes later, the sky turns pink.

                                                                The following morning

Stay tuned for the next blast.

Big Day on the Shore

7:00 - minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit, thick sea smoke on the water
9:00 - walk with dog lasts 5 minutes, still minus 5
11:30 - bald eagle flies back and forth for several minutes a few yards offshore, seagull follows doggedly
1:45 - walk with dog lasts 10 minutes, now plus 5 degrees
2:00 - fox walks across the yard, jumps on bench, leaps at birds in bush (must be desperate), birds budge the minimum, fox heads on down the shore and out of sight
2:05 - catch up on email trail in which literary agent, having seen wife's recently published story in Natural Bridge, wants to know if she's got a novel going
2:30 - monstrous tanker out on the Bay
2:45 - another fox crosses the yard and disappears down the shore
4:30 - dusk, sea smoke thins but has persisted all day, daytime high reaches a balmy plus 7