We’ve had a fairly average winter this year. There was no snow at Christmas (first snow fell December 27) so it was restricted to January and February and just enough to make snow sports fun for a while — but not so much that it made life difficult. Win/win.
I bought snow shoes this year and went on several fun night walks with the Sweet Ride Cycling group. It is hard to beat a torch-lit group walk through snow-laden forests. Throw in a few frozen stream crossings and you have an adventure!
We “discovered” the ski trails at the MARC this winter (what took us so long?) and spent a few weekends doing a combo of skiing, skating on the pond, snowshoeing and sledding. Fun for all the family (in theory). But we didn’t make it to Martock once. By March break the snow had all but gone.
We heard our first Cardinal in mid-February and by the first week in March could be guaranteed to see one on our morning walks (Mary Ann and I are walking most morning during the week). By early March the rhubarb shoots were visible and the daffodil stalks were a few inches high. (The crocus was photographed February 26 by Lloyd Westhaver in his garden near the school.)
The word on the street is that the bugs will be bad this year because of the relatively mild temperatures. Matt is not convinced. Time will tell…
witches whiskers 
Update – the bugs were not that bad. We had no ticks in the summer but a slew of them in September (13 I believe in 14 days!). I don’t remember the black flies at all!