No new lambs today. The count is currently sixteen; three sets of twins and ten singles. We have had a break in the weather, with temperatures above freezing for the first time in a week. The mountain tops are still white, but our fields are no longer snow covered. The barnyard is muddy again, a foretaste of spring days that are still a long way off. Since we have more lambs to come, inevitably we have more bad weather ahead of us. On Saturday morning I brought a bouquet of flowers home with the groceries for Susan. Their fragrance made winter seem to vanish for a moment. Then the breeze cut through the gap at the bottom of the door . . . Here is another one of Jonathan Chaves' translations that captures those days on the cusp of the season, as winter becomes spring:

After Snow --- Impromptu

Dawn breaks, snow patches lie on the slopes:
far away, they seem like flocks of sheep
or maybe geese.
Remember--plodding through spring mud
to see the budding willows,
in camel-hair robe and sable hat
crossing the icy river.

Yu Chi