Life in New Hampshire

One of my favorite things about living in New Hampshire? By the time you are tired of the current season, a new one starts, and excitement and energy fill up the air all over again.  The last couple of days, the weather has been so warm… 50’s in February. I’m sure it’s just a warm spell, and I’m just as sure that Old Man Winter still has a few snowflakes to hurl in our direction, but he’s past his prime now.

I love the winter; and this winter has been a classic one.  Record snowfalls in some parts of New England, deep freezes for days on end, sub zero weather…the whole kit and caboodle. It does present a conflict in me… as an outdoor enthusiast, there are so many opportunities for fun… I look forward to fantastic snowy winters.

As a surveyor…. deep snow is a death knell. There is not much you can do when the job is to map the edge of the parking lot and all the utilities, and you have no idea where they may be under the piles of snow and ice. A stone monument marking a property line under 4 feet of snow in the middle of the woods is NOT an easy thing to find. 

So, you have to find the good and get over the bad. Enjoy the season that is upon you, until the next one arrives. I’ve been snow shoeing. I’ve enjoyed the cold air outside while the fire in the woodstove roars inside. The kids have been snowboarding and skating every week. We’ve made snow forts. Even the hard work of shoveling the snow out to the shed or off the roof was fun. Good exercise with a tangible end result.

But now… the winter has worn on me.  I’m ready to start doing something else. And low and behold – the weather turns, and its 50 degrees and sunny out. The patio ice melted away yesterday. The roof is bare.

There are some funky smells in the air… rotten, wet, frozen things have surfaced with all their pungencies…yet still…they are smells of spring… of life and death still happening under the frozen mantle of snow and ice.

I feel the sun’s energy. I’m thinking now of looking at my seed catalogues, planning 2011’s garden… of pruning my fruit trees and imagining the next additions to my orchard… of hanging some buckets on Maple trees to make some maple syrup with the kids. I’ve even contemplated fixing up my mountain bike and getting out and riding the muddied up snowmobile trails.

Sure… there is still plenty of winter to be had… some of our biggest winter snows arrive in March… but then they melt.

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