Last week the gulls came back. 

A birdbander friend once told me that this was a more reliable

sign of spring than the robins, some of whom hang around all winter. 

However spring here is often followed by 6 or more weeks

of cold and snow.

Sure enough Friday we woke to a world of frost. 

Every thing spiked and mace headed and the walk

to work was suffused with an odd bluish light.

         

"And now that this same trim

of white has won over my hair

with its own wintry reminder

these fragile frost-work mornings

sing a pale and delicate song.
Time pauses on the edge of rime."

 Morning of Hoar Frost
Glen Sorestad