I am sending this out on the eve of a potentially historic snowstorm in New England in late January 2015.

I know, we're not anywhere close to spring but my ex wife's father (my ex father-in-law?) always claimed he could sense spring coming in January. And I can too if I've got paper white narcissus bulbs blooming at home. That smell they make is a kind of perfume that says spring for me.

My mom used to grow them when my sisters and I were kids and the whole house would smell.  Some people hate it. Not me. They're easy to do and they brighten the day.

Curious about what two photographs are hiding behind the flowers above the table in my dining room at home?

They are of a bicycle and a wagon wheel in the almost dry riverbed of a tributary stream to the Connecticut River in Vermont taken last August on a kayaking trip. The prints are somewhat brown black and whites 37 x 25 inches in 45 x 34 inch white frames. Read the full story about the trip here.