This is Hillman’s Long Lake on the afternoon of April 19, 2014. Nothing you’re looking at is water (though there is about 10 feet of water rimming the lake, at least on the east side). The ice is thin enough that you can see the color changes in the water underneath. And the drop-offs are clearly visible, at least in the beautiful sunshine of this Saturday before Easter.

Last year on this date, we’d been in kayaks for a few weeks already!

The finches are turning in their drab feathers for their nifty yellow ones. The squirrels are running around the lawn in pairs. Deer are browsing in the yard. They seem to be munching on leftovers from the fall acorn crop. A mother fox ran across County Road 459 just beyond Lake Road. She had a kit in her mouth and headed into a culvert pipe. We watch a huge kettle of about 20 turkey vultures stirring things up above Horseshoe Lake. An adolescent bald eagle, distinctive despite the lack of adult plumage, cruised along the west shore headed toward the Narrows. He circled back and landed on the ice, hopping about for a bit in that eagle-typical wide stance.

So, finally, Spring is here–just a month or so late.