Fire danger is low.  Backyard burning season is due to open on March 1, and do I ever have piles and piles of prunings to burn!  With ~3" of rain the first part of this week, followed by 3 dry days, the creek went up over a foot, and since then has been slowly dropping, not yet down to where it was last Sunday. The hillside and wetlands are still bleeding water, and the roadside ditches have a good supply.  The concern here is that the snowpack on the mountains is so light, in spite of plenty rain. The dry days were each followed by freezing nights, and Friday morning I found some hair ice. Photos below.  Formation of hair ice requires some dead alder wood that is infected with a certain fungus, plus "just-so" conditions of humidity, freezing, and time.  My morning chores these days are invariably accompanied by a chorus of bird songs.  Our chickens are laying eggs like crazy - even the 5 1/2 year-old grandma hen has laid a few.  Soil was quite muddy at midweek, but nicely workable in the garden yesterday, and I have spaded up the potato patch and laid black plastic over it to warm it, and planted a patch of peas in a sheltered spot.  Pruning of trees and shrubs is underway, and buds are beginning to swell.  Chickweed, dandelions, daffodils, bittercress, and some little ornamental in the borage family are all in bloom.  The hellebores (Lenten roses) are just loaded with blossoms.  The lawn is green and growing slowly.  I mowed some of the taller stuff this week.  In the forest, plenty tall dead grasses and bracken from last year are still standing.