It’s been said that February is the cruelest month.  I don’t know about that, but it sure is the month when winter makes itself most known around here.  Like winter (the shortest season at 89 days), the year’s shortest month seems endlessly long. 

By the time February rolls around, the holidays and our collective dreams of a white Christmas are long lost to the January doldrums and the beginnings of cabin fever.  Seed catalogs and garden planning help, but as the temperatures drop so does my enthusiasm for the great outdoors. 

Temperatures in the teens and twenties during the day and single digit and below zero temperatures at night visit.  Weather forecasts often offer a smorgasbord of snow:  dustings, flurries, showers, storms, blizzards, nor’easters, and thundersnow, with side servings of rain, freezing rain, sleet, ice, hail, and wind.  Lots of it.  And that’s just this past weekend. 

Welcome to February in the Berkshires.

Blue skies finally arrive after a long weekend of snow, ice, and wind.

Today the sky is blue, the air is crisp and clear.  Clumps of snow are still hanging onto the yew outside my window.  It looks pretty, but it’s going to take some warmth to melt the icy hold the white stuff from this past weekend’s storm has on it.

Tonight, temperatures are headed toward zero, but it’s supposed to warm up (a bit) over the coming week.  With luck, the snow will retreat, and I’ll find the entirety of my driveway and stairs leading up to the house.  I’ve cleared a path to come and go, but much of the driveway has a layer of ice underneath the remnants of this last storm. Snow melt and grit have had little effect on the shoveled areas, providing a narrow path for walking.  All around, mounds of snow are topped with a solid coating of ice that resists breakthrough when trying to clean up more of the mess.

It’s pretty to look at and pretty hard to clear.  So, I’ll wait until the temperatures rise a bit over the next few days, and the ice gives way, and the snow becomes more manageable.  Spring is, after all, on its way in just 29 days. 

Resident rabbits, a pair of raccoons, a possum, and a mostly white skunk left their marks
as they made their way around the house under cover of darkness.

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