Much better. I don’t feel nearly so grumpy today. No coyotes or elves, but what the walk lacked in creature encounters, it more than made up for in sun and warm temperatures. Within a few minutes I wished I’d left my gloves at home, and minutes after that, the rest of my clothes. Outer layer of clothes, that is. Only five degrees separated yesterday and today, but no wind and an unfiltered (bright, glorious) sun made today seem like an entirely different season. The melt is on. Time to dress myself in rubber.

Walked for about two hours, most of it in Mill Creek but looped through Louise Mckinney to check for goosesign. More splayed footprints on the river, but no actual geese. I think. Even if a goose had waddled up in front of me, I was so snow-blind by that point I would’ve missed an entire flock of geese. My retinas are still sizzling. The sun is very, very bright on all that pristine, white snow, soon to be the dirty, dirty snow of spring. And then…grass. I mean gravel, and then grass.

3:00 PM/-4C (start of daylight savings today)