And there goes the illness gong again – M. has what’s most likely pneumonia and I’m hovering on the edge of I don’t quite know what. We really are looking forward to spring now. We’re not tired of the snow – it’s still there, huge, improbable mounds of it – but of the cold and the dark. Some sunlight, please. And when the snow melts, crocuses and snowdrops. I didn’t go outside all weekend because of M’s fever but today, on my way to work (cursing the train for being late so I missed my bus and had to walk from the station, carrying impractical, heavy bags; cursing the woman who bumped my elbow and spilled hot coffee all over my hand and sleeve and didn’t even turn around to say sorry (”#%&!); cursing the general coldness and icy slipperyness) I heard a woodpecker. Weakly, but it was a woodpecker. And then I looked down just in time to see an ermine rush across the path and into the field. An ermine! All white with the black paintbrush tail-tip. I’ve never seen an ermine before, not in winter coat. So lovely. And sitting down by the computer tonight I felt that glimpse of happiness again. Maybe spring will come soon after all.