Like most aspects of life, there's a good side to the combination of long days and strong sun, along with the possibility of a disaster. 

Daytime temperatures are in the 30s and 40s, nighttime in the 20s, which makes it easy for river ice to melt during the day, then freeze up a little at night. 

We don't want it to melt too quickly, for obvious reasons. A nice slow spring is a good spring.

You have to remember that, not only do we have a ton of snow and ice here waiting to melt, but we're downstream from a glacier up north that could bury us all. Whoa baby, you don't want that stuff coming down on your head!

Stay tuned. If I show up on one of your doorsteps, you'll know why. 

Yes, it's finally obvious that the days are getting longer and the sky is sitting higher in the sky. Hence, the snow has started to melt in New England from the bottom up. Eventually, there will be hollow snow shells where once there were snow banks. You can see it starting to melt around the shrubs behind our condo:

And ice is breaking up on the rivers. There's even an occasional patch of ground among the frozen stuff, in spots the sun can reach. 

Much of the road to the cabin has turned to muck, a sure sign of miserable days ahead.

Dave got me some ice skates for our anniversary, and we thought today would be the perfect day to try them out. The sun was out, sky was clear, temps right around freezing and there was hardly any wind. The calm before the storm...

Anyway, it took 20 minutes to put them, 20 minutes to take them off, and five minutes to realize the ice was much too soggy to support big people.

Everyone on the East Coast will get some form of winter weather beginning tonight and extending into Monday or Tuesday, depending on lattitude. Don't put away those hats and gloves just yet. 

Here are a few photos we took today, including a few taken on the cell phone, from the car. 

Can you share what how far you're into spring where you live? If you like, email a photo and I'll put it up on the site.