About 6 weeks ago I posted about how we'd passed the coldest average temps period and things would be warming up. I did mention that February could be nasty here though, and it was.

I got a couple nights backpacking in, but those were a squeeze between vicious cold spells. This weekend we had got about 1/8" of ice, then it sleeted about 1/5", then it snowed about 5" on top of that. It starts warming up towards the end of the week, and rain is in the forecast, so that will melt the snow off, but things will be really gooshy for a bit after.

My neighbors and I followed a creek that we day hiked to a week or so before to its end and just a bit past where we were the first time the creek opened up and was just filled bank to bank with Witch hazel in full bloom for about 1/2 a mile. The scent of it is just dreamy and it makes you feel so good.

When I got home I realized I'd been cooped up for so long that I hadn't even checked the Witch Hazel I planted in our front yard a few years ago to see if it had bloomed so the next day I did, and it was blooming good. It's just been so cold the scent of it never really got going. You have to be right next to it to catch a whiff in this cold and the flowers aren't very noticeable either.

So it's been a tough season so far. I'm hoping that March, which has started with a smack upside the head, will settle down and be nice for a bit. If the weather held out for even just a week it'd be great because I need the time out bad. Cabin Fever has got to me.

Even I've noticed I've been getting a little teeny, tiny, itsy, bit grumpy and my wife made it clear she's about sick of that and she's going to strangle me if I don't get out of here soon. And it won't be in my sleep either. She'll make darn sure I know she's doing it.