The road to work in April

Reservoir Hill Road in theoretical April, with knee-deep snow still lurking in the dark hollows of the woods and ice covering most of the Reservoir. This is spring?

The mergansers and buffleheads and wood ducks who showed up a week or so ago have mostly disappeared. The geese are still here but don't know what to think, stalking sulkily around on their cold feet on the ice, although Mrs. Goose is nursing a clutch of eggs in her nest in the usual spot on the stumps marooned in the ice in the cove just past our yard. The ice is piled up on our shore in ragged chunks and still taking up most of the lake in a great big sheet, with patches of slowly widening cold, open water around the edges. The howling wind and snow were so wild a week or so ago that our power was out for a couple of days, and it went out again for a few hours the other day. I'm still wearing my down coat and pashmina scarf to work, and turning on the heated seats in the car. Again I ask you - this is spring?