Here it is, the season we've been longing for for more than six months now. It's the outdoor season. It's when we can go outside and relax (vs. shiver with parka, mittens, scarf and hat while we wait for the dogs to do their business so we can get back inside where it's warm for goodness sake).

We have our favorite lawn ornament - our ugly pool. In the past we have planned to install a real pool, the kind that is dug in the ground with excavation equipment like a pond, with polite and upscale flagstone paving its "banks," and charming patio furniture and accessories from Pottery Barn completing the scene. But, we've decided we are going to abandon the land in a few years, and spend out time on a sailboat. So, our old, mouse chewed, ugly-as-sin "Sofpool" went back up in the yard this weekend instead. It's our "sacrifice." But, we actually love the old girl and we and the dogs have enjoyed a lot of fun and games in her. She doesn't have to be pretty or to add joy to our lives.

We hauled the old firepit back out, too. Out from under a tree that fell across it in the ice storm of December that left most of the state without electricity for weeks. John chainsawed the downed tree into manageable parts and hammered metal firepit back into shape. Here it is, a blaze with the branches and debris of the yard again felled from the storm. The fire keeps us warm as the sun sets and the air chills, and the smoke keeps away the black flies that otherwise swarm around our heads.

I wish I could share the sound of the birds in Spring, as I sit in my gazebo in the early weekend mornings, crisp air, warm coffee mug in my hands. We marvel, really, nearly every day it is warm enough to sit outside, that we can. Sit. Still. Listen. Calm. Relax. Feel the air-that-is-warm-enough-to-stay-in. This is the season. The season we can go outdoors.