The trees appear lifeless...not one hint of a bud or bit of greenery. The maple trees are producing that wondrous sap, which after hours of boiling becomes liquid gold maple syrup, but the trees certainly don't look pretty at this stage. Gray skeletons are stark against a frequently gray sky.
The snow banks are melting, but the grass that is revealed as they recede is dead and matted down like a head of hair that has been unbrushed all winter. No tulips, crocuses or daffodils have ventured the smallest green shoot.
Worse yet is all the debris that becomes apparent as the snow banks melt away. I walked several blocks today noting plastic bags and bottle caps, cardboard tubes, chunks of styrofoam, stray Christmas decorations, and worst of all....the canine feces which has been frozen in the snow banks is now thawing out everywhere.
Dog owners are supposed to pick up after their dogs, and some do. I have seen one lady in the neighborhood who gets behind her dog as soon as he squats and places a plastic bag strategically to catch the foul waste. Not everyone is as thoughtful. And so, the entire winter's inventory of doggy doo is now thawing where it was deposited during November, December, January and February.
When my son was a little guy and tried to play outside at this time of year, it was not uncommon to find him at the door nearly in tears wailing, "Oh, no! Puppy-doo!" It's tough on a kid to avoid a whole winter's worth of the stuff.
Ah, well....in a few short weeks, the spring rains will have washed the disgusting plops into the soil, the grass will be greening, violets will appear in the lawn, and the limbs of the trees will have little swelling buds that are a promise of leaves.
But, if you are planning a trip to northern New York before that, watch out where you step.
