Tween Time: March and the slow rise to spring

This photograph gives a fair representation of what the first Sunday in March 2021 looked and felt like along a creek in a rural area north of Baltimore — dormant and low and colorless but for the midday sky. It’s Tween Time, between winter and spring. I doubt I’ve ever heard anyone call it their favorite time of year. It no longer feels like winter, the taste of snow having left the air, but there’s not yet a single sign of spring, not even one over-eager crocus, not a single green bud on a tree. The weather forecast says that’s about to change, with the temperatures in central Maryland headed for the 60s in the coming days. So then what the camera captured was the last hours of sleep, the final stage of hibernation and, in ways we cannot see, the slow rise to spring. Aren’t we grateful to be here, at the turn of another season?