Today is the first day in I don’t know how many weeks that I dared to carefully walk anywhere else than to the compost bin without the risk of breaking an ankle, or having icicles on my eyelashes after a few minutes out in the cold.

By this time of the year I usually have the blueprint of the garden ready and the seeds ordered, and even started some seedlings. This year, the garden planner and the seed catalogs sit untouched. It feels like my gardening drive is buried under the thick layers of ice and snow around us.

Finally today, I spotted a tiny sign of progress – and a bit of color in all that white and grey. One of the witch hazels is budding. I also saw that its bark has been badly chewed. Normally I would fetch some wire screen right away to protect it from more damage. But I just let it be, thinking those poor rabbits need food too, and hoping the shrub will make it; it has survived voracious rabbits before.

Our marble frog sticking out of the snow made me laugh. Doesn’t he look like he is saying, “Enough already?”