March 6 - March 10 Snowdrops appear

2010-Passing Perry Cobb’s on Milldam Road I saw the first bunch of snowdrops; pure swelling buds and waxy white flowers hanging above fresh green stems, surrounded by the filthiest, sooty black roadside snow.  I guess the last vestiges of sooty black snow are also a sign of spring.  And then there’s that brief period when the snow withdraws exposing bare ground and dusty dry brown grasses showing no sign of life.  It’s the very picture of despair but the heart knows better.
Willows are coloring up and the buds of the maples around the corner are swelling.  Across from Davenport’s those yellow snow anemones have appeared mixed with snowdrops.
The maples are producing copious sap, gallons a day. A report on the radio called it a banner year.  All told I end up with 1 ½ quarts of syrup from about 10 gallons of sap (which is only very slightly sweet to the taste and reminds me of, and smells like, coconut water.)
2011- Wanting spring is the first sign of spring… Three quarts of syrup this year and I learned something about wood from Laura-oak is not good for a hot fire, two whole days trying to boil the sap down. Next year I will prepare ahead. While I was back there the redwing blackbird showed up, same tree as last year, again singing to another I did not see (or maybe to me!) All it takes is the sight of one robin hopping about on a patch of bare grass and something shifts in me-not that it is spring but that I am spring. And still, with all this snow unmelted on the ground, not a flower yet.  Copious amounts of rain continuing and the expectation of local flooding.  So far this land is draining well and I haven’t needed to go out and clear paths for the water to flow off.

The first sign of spring
Is the longing for spring.
Redwing blackbird calls.

2012-Just at five-thirty, an hour before sunrise, a bird began to sing. It was soon joined by several others. Yesterday in Woodstock, I heard the first peepers-only one and two at a time but loud because very close by- in the boggy area near the gallery. Predicted temperatures today are up to sixty and warmer tomorrow-then back to thirties by the weekend. Saw the first robin, alone, in a budding pussy willow by the road.
      On Turning Sixty
   Waiting for a sign;
    Study or eat you?
    No longer sharp or hungry
    I see the unlooked for cloud,
    Misty and fecund, crossing the sky above my contented desert.
    Love? Now? Don’t make me laugh-
    Ah.
2013- New heights of production-5 quarts of syrup-two days standing over the fire-too busy to write.