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This weekend we got the news we’ve been awaiting for eight months.  Baby Zev, Tamar’s first grandchild is home with his parents.  Zev was born in July, about two months early, and had been in the NICU since then with a series of challenges for his tiny digestive system.  But he’s free of tubes at last and home.  We’ve been watching videos taken by his loving parents, Maayan (Tamar’s son) and his wife Sabina.  We listened to them talking to their tiny son, their voices brimming with love.  We watched Zev start to smile and heard his early vocalizing.  We followed some of the ups and downs of his treatments, the news of how much he was ingesting and the status of his poops.  We fell entirely in love with this little fighter.  I hope Zev will always be as brave and as happy as we have seen him be through these first challenging months.

He has come home to the tail end of winter.  I imagine conditions in his Connecticut home are pretty similar to the conditions here in Cooperstown.  We’ve had several days of warm weather, fifties and a few sixties.  The snow has receded, soaking into the ground and filling rivers and streams with runoff.  Yesterday the ice in the sheltered space between the house and the garage finally melted away, and today even the heap of snow the plow had pushed to the side of the driveway was finally gone.  There are still a few patches of snow in the woods, still some icicles clinging to north facing rocks.  But spring has shown itself, and we can feel it on the way despite the flurries of snow today.  In the farmers market people are dreaming of ramps* and asparagus, though they’re still weeks away.  

I walked out to Moe Pond on Saturday for the first time since winter set in.  The trail was clear and only a bit muddy in a few places.  The wind made a great noise in the trees and it picked up a flock of last year’s leaves and pushed them out ahead of me.  There are green shoots emerging, and Louise has the first little yellow flowers of spring next door.  Conversation in the locker room at the gym is often about firsts – first robins, first days working in the garden.  We have stopped focusing on how cold it is and turned our hearts toward warmer, longer days.  This Saturday is Crayon Carnival at Cooperstown Central school, a little merriment to celebrate the departure of winter.  The grown ups aren’t fooled.  We know that March is too early to declare winter over.  But still, it’s hard to resist putting boots and heavy coats away.

Pi day, 3.14, was our third wedding anniversary.  Bea and Mike Heustis took us out for a lovely dinner at Toscana, Cooperstown’s restaurant for special occasions.  Along with celebrating our anniversary we celebrated their imminent move back into their home on Goose Street.  They’ve been living in exile since a kitchen fire on August 5th rendered the house unlivable.  Mike, the contractor who did our remodel, put his team to work on the Goose Street house, and it’s a gem.  The walls around the kitchen are gone, the ceiling in the main room is gone, replaced by a beautiful beamed cathedral ceiling.  They’ve added a bedroom and bathroom, and everything looks terrific.  Mike has had to battle the insurance company every step of the way, but with smart shopping and using his own crew he’s made their old home a new home.  Bea and Mike and the five kids, and Johnny, the goofy great dane, will move back in on Thursday.  Jay and I were among the first on the scene after the fire, bringing pizza for the shocked and hungry family, so we’ll close the circle and bring pizza on moving day.  Home.

Downstairs on Averill Road Susan and Katie are home too.  They’re a lovely presence and quite delighted with their new home.  Susan works for the County in adult protective services, and Katie is about to graduate with a masters in social work.  We’re scarcely aware of them most of the time, but every encounter is pleasant.  We think of them as neighbors more than as tenants, and it’s a joy to provide housing that people appreciate so much.  Having moved in during winter they haven’t yet experienced their home in the woods when the trees are in full leaf.  I know what a treat they’re in for.

Tomorrow is election day in the village.  The two open seats on the town board are not contested, but we’ll go to the firehouse and cast our votes, reminding ourselves that we still live in a democracy.  Home.  Safe for now.

*Ramps are wild leeks.  They don’t grow in the western half of the US, and I don’t remember them from my NY childhood.  They’re the delicious, delicate first wild greens of spring.