Marching On

March is here and, as usual, it took me by surprise. You'd think that after almost 6 decades of sub-arctic winters I would remember the pattern, but every year I look up one day and the snow is particularly white, the sun suddenly feels warm, and the sky is the friendliest soft blue you can imagine. Then, one morning, I wake up startled by daylight out the window and I realize that we're going to make it through, one more time.
I feel as though I should stand on my tiptoes on the last day of February and lean into the joy that is March in Alaska. Instead, I seem to always trip and fall into it backwards, finally sprawling onto the 4th or 5th, and by then I've already missed several precious days. My ski wax always used to be wrong, and now my kick sled is frozen into an ice berm and I can never find my snow pants before dark. This year, I lost my lovely rose-colored fleece mittens on the third and my newly-healed index finger has no tolerance for separation from its siblings - WAY too cold - so gloves are totally inadequate.
Ach, too many feeble excuses. I must be off and out to slog through some beautiful fresh white snow and celebrate the anticipation of spring!
Then maybe I'll come home and enjoy one of the Salted Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies I made yesterday from a recipe I found on www.chocolatechillimango.com or a slice of my adaptation of Rose Levy Berenbaum's Lemon Poppyseed Poundcake into Raspberry Glazed Poundcake.