"I just can't imagine the Cornish Fair ox pull competition on Saturday night without Artie Scruton and his team in the ring… a terrible accident… just awful."

former Commissioner of Agriculture, Stephen Taylor

Tree buds burst open into tiny flowers and miniature, tender green leaves unfurl trembling, too frail yet to shade a forest floor.

A short, unsung “other foliage season” is here. Don’t blink – you’ll miss it.

By last Tuesday, a full week of sunshine dramatically melted snow statewide. Yet in the chilly shade of the green hemlock forest ravine, snow remained a foot deep.

In the Village…

With warm temperatures and weekday sunshine, spring is making a comeback in rural central New Hampshire. “Mud season” returns to dirt roads. The bomb-cratered, muddy duel-track road to our farm would put the back roads of Bhutan to shame.

Coyotes woke me again last night – those "Dogs of March" howl in nightly pursuit of winter-weakened deer. At daybreak, a distant chorus of raucous crows likely marks the location of a new-fallen deer. The crust on the deep snow won't support a deer, but it does aid their pursuers.