Season of Transition

This was spring 2010.

Officially, spring begqn early this year, on the 20th instead of, as often happens, on the 21st. Yesterday. Spring? Does it look like spring?

This is spring 2013.

This year's is a leonine spring, fierce and wild and treacherous, in terms of visibility, road surfaces, and pedestrian footing. On the other hand, it's better for orchard and field crops and lake levels than last year's early thaw, followed by blizzard and freeze, so we wait patiently, confident that winter will not last forever. After all, it never has as long as we've been alive. 

It's a busy time, anyway, despite the lack of crowds in Northport. The building that houses Dog Ears Books has a new owner, and Clare (who will be moving her gallery from the Depot to Waukazoo Street before April is over) is making lots of changes, some of them affecting the bookstore. We'll have a new wall between gallery and bookstore, an interior door between the two, and our own new sidewalk entrance next to the law office front door. The door in the photo below will then serve as gallery entrance, no longer opening directly into the bookstore. Don't worry -- it won't be confusing when you see how it works out.

Current bookstore entrance . . . 

Meanwhile, there are carpenters at work in the gallery, and before they start on the new wall I have a lot of furniture and books to move. My sprawling, out-of-control storage area also has to be seriously downsized and contained within a restricted space. It's good. Clutter accumulates to fill available space, and I seriously need to pare down. It's time to purge, purge, purge! 

Spring cleaning -- isn't that a traditional activity for this time of year?

"What's It Like Here in the Spring?"

No one ever asks that, do they? It's winter they want to hear about, but my answer to both questions would be the same. "That depends on the year. We never know what to expect." Follow this link to see my photographs from Wednesday morning, April 20, 2011. It was a stunner, and we stayed home all day. Thanks to Bruce manning the counter at Dog Ears Books, the bookstore was open.

This morning, my hero David got us out of the unplowed driveway without 4WD. What a guy! And now the sun is shining, the roofs are dripping, and all this snow will soon be only a memory.