I can pinpoint almost exactly when spring arrived this year. When I went walking on March 7, I found that winter had not yet packed up all of its ice.
Needle Ice
But winter was clearly on its way out. Even in the shadow of the overhanging rock, only a few icicles and icy stalagmites, reduced to nubs, remained.
Lingering Icicles
Melting Nubs
Melting Nub With Pretty Bubbles Trapped Inside
And the Icefalls, which were so dramatic last year, even in March, were almost completely gone. Here is all that was left of them.
The Last of the Icefalls
By the time I went walking again, two days later, there was not a crystal of ice to be found anywhere in the woods. Spring had come to town.