Snowstake this morning. I've cropped it so the bottom of the stake is about at the bottom of the picture.

The sun rose at 7:01 am and won’t set until 8:49 this evening, for a total of 13 hours 41 minutes of daylight. Astronomical night doesn’t start until after midnight, and by a week from now we won’t have astronomical night at all, as the sun will never get more than 18° below the horizon. By the middle of the month, when a performance of P.D.Q. Bach’s The Stoned Guest is scheduled, civil twilight will last almost an hour after sunset, and I should be able to drive myself there and home even though I can’t drive in the dark.

It’s warming up, and it was actually into the forties for a couple of days last week. Snow has pretty well disappeared from fence rails and the top of the lattice. Water has been dripping from the roof, and I’ve actually seen a puddle or two. Temperatures this weekend have been a little cooler, staying slightly below freezing. But by next weekend they should be back into the forties, and breakup should start getting underway in earnest.

This is the time of year I start getting really impatient—it’s usually clear and sunny, and I get eager for the snow, still almost 2’ deep, to go away! The road crews have pushed the berms way back on the main roads, and I’ve even seen a couple of short stretches of bicycle paths cleared, to the great annoyance of the snowmachiners who use them in the winter.  I wish the snow would melt enough I could get to the shed and free my tricycle!