When the snow (mostly) melted last weekend , I thought that we were perhaps done for the year. And then on Monday morning, not even an hour after I'd gotten warm enough to take off my jacket on the walk from the bus to school, darkness settled over us again, cold rain began to spatter down, the rain turned to snow, and by Tuesday morning we had nearly another foot on the ground (and everywhere else).

It took me a bit of time to be able to admit that snow in late April was a cooler to my spirits.

Yesterday, the temperature popped back up to the 60s, and by now the snow has (mostly) melted again. I learn once more about how the mountains and the sun play against each other: shaded trails are slick with slush and red mud; sunned slopes are dry and hot and rose quartzed again. This weekend we get a taste of summer. The foothills' eastern slopes start to green. Orion giants his way out of my night skies for another year running.