Winter is hanging on...

I have lived in Michigan for over 45 years and this has been the most brutal winter I can remember.  The ice just never melted.  We always have ice.  We always have snow.  But this winter we never had enough sunny days where the temperature crept up just a little to let the sun, together with the rock salt, do its work and give us a dry pavement again.

Even now, after the first week of April, the morning and evening temperatures are usually below freezing, although it is warming up a little during the day.

Here is the last of the ice in my driveway which did finish melting just a few days ago.  For most of the winter this was a wide and treacherous swath of ice, three or four inches thick.  We just could not get it melted.

And lo and behold! Life returns to Michigan.  I was so excited to see these.  There are even some crocuses blooming.  Today, if we're lucky the temperature could head into the sixties, the warmest yet.

I may just have to get my bike out and go for a ride!