We are about midway between winter solstice and vernal equinox, but the weather feels more like early spring than midwinter. We've had all the precipitation that even the driest duck could ask for, but it's been rain, not snow. The sun rises now at about ten minutes before seven, some twenty minutes earlier than at solstice, and sets at five. Surely it's fair to feel the pull of spring, even though we haven't really had winter.

It's still the quiet time of the Vineyard year, the few months we savor before the summer to come. But in the mild, lengthening days, it's not so quiet as once it was.