The snow is slowly melting. As winter leaves, the sun gets higher, the days get longer, and the weather slowly- very slowly- gets warmer. The sun is at twelve hours above the horizon today. Which means twelve hours to warm the ground and twelve hours to melt the snow. Only a few inches have drifted away, but the notice is evident. Some of the willow branches in the backyard look fuller, they don't seem so scraggly and alone. The lower branches are rising from the ground like a human waking from slumber. The footprints in the front yard to seem so deep, but rather like normal tracks on normal amounts of snow. The roads are beginning to melt off. And dark colored objects create warmth that pushes the snow away from them. Things like old logs and river banks always show their faces first. I think the sun loves them most.
