Thaw

Spring is here, quite suddenly. The snowbanks are visibly shrinking, meltwater drops from the eaves and trickles over the sidewalks and accumulates ankle-deep around the still-frozen drains, parks and fields are soft and muddy.

There have been several false alarms this year, three or four days when I thought that Spring had arrived, but the day after was always cold and snowy again, and on none of these occasions was there any significant amount of snow-melt. I wonder what makes the difference?

The first flowers will be out any day now.