Snowflakes, Sweetness, Eclipse, Mud.

3-14-25 VERMONT: We’ve been here for a few days. There is plenty of snow, especially around the house. A few spots in the pasture are melting out—the pasture faces south and the sun. I always say that March in Vermont is a winter month, except that it’s warmer, and the dirt roads turn to mud, which is one of the reasons to have an all-wheel drive vehicle. 

March is also the beginning of sugar season. Neighbor Steve has sap collecting buckets adorning all the sugar maple trees. Signs of sweetness to come. Today is warm, in the sixties, but there will be lots of cold weather yet.

Last night was quite exciting with the lunar eclipse. Judy woke me up around 2:15 AM, and we staggered outside to see the moon in red with a touch of white as it was beginning to emerge from the earth’s shadow. It was in the south-west a few hours before moonset. I took a handheld picture. I should have used a tripod, but it was 2:30 AM. 

I should also have posted before we left for VT, because the snowflakes were up in NJ. They’re cousins of the snowdrops, just a week or so later. The snowdrops were all open and swarming with bees. By the south side of the house here, the snow has melted a little, and snowdrops have come up. Something has been eating them, probably deer.

New blooms [NJ]: snowflakes.

Snow piles under the eaves will be here until some time in April, possibly even May.

More snow piles.

Buckets along the road. I count fourteen in the picture.

A closer look at the buckets.

Moon emerging from shadow. The black lines are tree branches in front of the moon.

Snowflakes look a lot like the snowdrops, but are little domes touched with green.

Snowdrops in NJ, fully open and swarming with bees.

Snowdropos in VT, just coming up, but have been grazed down.