I shouldn’t be surprised by April behavior, but every year I am, again.  I expect warm, still days, with sun and no wind.  I expect to be planting spinach and peas and turning my compost.  I expect to be drinking my morning cappuccino on the back deck, and sitting on the front porch in the evening sun.

Instead, we got about 8 inches of snow yesterday, that compacted down to a solid 3 or 4 inch crusty layer on everything, including the garden bed I’d envisioned turning over, fertilizing and planting at some point this weekend.  The sun is in and out today, but the wind is still chilly, and periodically dark clouds come by and some type of semi-frozen precipitation sheets down, like a prankster in the sky is hurling ice just for fun.

But coming back from doing errands earlier this afternoon, I could see a solid patch of Northwood Lake where the ice has moved off shore a good hundred feet or more, and the water was dark blue and sparkling in the sun.   Jeweled water, banded by receding ice, April at its best.