Two days ago it was 15° below zero. Yesterday the temperature swung seventy degrees, to 55° F. Today it is 50° and due to rain.
What scant snow cover we have is ebbing fast, leaving mud and ice everywhere. Yesterday the Olympic Regional Development Authority canceled the big annual Loppet cross-country ski race scheduled for Saturday. Tonight the weather will shift again, with wind gusts of 50 mph and the possibility of 4 inches of fresh snow.
The first robins appeared this morning, three weeks earlier than usual, another feature of this crazy winter. As always I worry what they will find to eat in the snow, sleet, and mud.
Gathering in the school’s maple sugarbush started this morning. I can hear the growl of the bulldozer towing the sap collector in the trees. My knee has been so painful I won’t be able to help empty buckets this year.
