ArtFest and the Rites of Spring

While some rites of Spring are Universal, others are definitely personal. Last weekend we witnessed the spring migration of the snow geese and the trumpeter swans. As one of my favorite ecologists once observed,

"One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring."
Aldo Leopold
Definitely Universal!

This week, Jenn joined her friends to participate in ArtFest . Definitely personal, but no less important. It is talked about, called about, emailed and prepared for as soon as the packets arrive for next year's festival. She left Tuesday and will return Monday night.

Tiika and I do our own spring ritual. Her idea of spring is to run through the woods and discover all the wonderful goodies that the melting snow reveals. I follow along and try to keep her from rolling in the worst of it. If not, there's a stop at the river on the way home and she swims with the ice floes. However, this is Springtime in the Rockies, which brings up another quote:

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month."
- Henry Van Dyke, Fisherman's Luck, 1899

One day we went out and the weather looked like this . It was nice hiking in shorts and a t-shirt.


Tiika always likes to stay in front, but I'm not sure if she ever notices the sky.




I do and thought we might have a different hike today. Sure enough,
this is what it looked like when we opened the door this morning.













I hiked in fleece pants and a pair of gaiters. It will be like this through April and I've been snowed on in July, which brings up the last quote:


"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
- Robert Frost

This is why you'll find both fleece pants and a pair of shorts in my pack. Oh, to be Tiika, who seems to be perfectly dressed all year long and can swim any time she likes! This is fun, but we both really miss Jenn. The last picture is of, in my humble opinion, the two best hiking partners on the planet!