mid-winter thaw

We are still a long ways from spring time, but the last few days we have been enjoying a nice winter thaw.  Most of the snow from the yard and fields has melted.  The picture is of the snowpile that gets shoved into the center of the cul-de-sac.  It's a lot like the huge piles that form at the back of parking lots and at the corners of intersections around here every winter.   It becomes a lot like a glacier; there's not enough time for the old snow to completely melt before the new snow piles on top.  While nothing beats the clean-ness and crispness of a fresh fluffy white snow fall, thawing is a much uglier process.  Big dirty piles of black snow mixed with salt and dirt and chunks of lawn kicked up by the plows, all surrounded by virtual rivers of flowing sticky mud.  It's always funny to see the kids riding their bikes around the snow pile wearing shorts and sandals in the springtime.