And let's get back to important things: birds and plants. My friend Elizabeth, who comments here, was in town with her partner Liz and their kids. Elizabeth and Liz are big-time birders. We went down to the river with binoculars, and a good thing -- Elizabeth spotted a pair of red-breasted mergansers paddling around out beyond the piers. They were here last spring, too, on their way north, though I had no idea what they were. Meanwhile, in the parks, dwarf irises have shot up, three inches high with blue-violet petals. Crocuses the color of egg yolks glow even in the fog, which we've had a lot of, and frilly daffodils are bursting open under the pines by the river. All the trees are covered with buds about to pop.

Of course, they say it's going to snow on Friday.