Thawing out

When you live in the northeast part of the country, that first warm day of the spring is magical. Being able to go out without a sweatshirt or jacket and feel the warmth of the sun on exposed skin is something you wait for during the interminable bleakness of winter. Like the apology that melts the firmest of resolves, the first warm day makes all the snow, arctic blasts and trips to the woodpile rapidly fade to memory.

If you live in a southern climate, I don't know what would be tantamount to this slow exit of winter from a northerner's bones?

While the temptation was there to engage in the bountiful cleanup that accompanies the slow retreat of winter in my neck of the woods, I decided to just enjoy the day without clouding it with work. I spent a good portion of the afternoon engaged in the guilty pleasure of a good book, massaged by the sun's welcome rays.

It's only April and today is but one tease of many, but it's an indication of the coming temperate days of May and then, Maine's all-too-short summer.