Well, by my own particular private and personal standards, I declare it officially SPRING in Seacoast New Hampshire -- today I saw my first snowy egret of the season.

I'd had lunch with a friend in North Hampton and headed to the beach on the way home to make sure the ocean was still there (it pays to check -- there's a bloke in England with a dipper...) and in the salt marsh at Cable Road and Rte. 1A (we drove past it, Micca) there it was -- posing for me. Just as if I'd conjured it up.

Some years their appearance doesn't quite coincide with one of my shore drives and I'm forced to squint out of desperation and pretend that a herring gull might be egrettish-looking. Or that one of the rare Great Egrets are actually a Snowy (squinting again, of course).

I've already seen bare knees on joggers and UPS delivery men and it's actually PAST maple sugaring time. Crocuses, daffodils blooming all over the place and the forsythia are starting, too. And buds on trees.

One of these days it might be warmer than 34 degrees (F.) in the morning...

Linn