Moments in March

March went by in a blur and a drag. The first of the month lake jump froze our feet as we had to walk over six feet of ice to get to clear waters. COVID cases spiked in Vermont so everyone hunkered down to try to stay safe. Most meetings were virtual or distanced outside over coffee. (I drank sooooo much coffee was drunk this month and may have accidentally developed a caffeine addiction but hey I need something to get me started in the morning.) Daylights savings came and went. The sun shone the most it has this year and I stopped keeping track of how many sunny days there were this year and started simply getting out and trying to enjoy them even if the temperature high was only 10˚F. Snow came and went as the first signs of spring began to appear in as the crocuses and forsythia began to bloom, only to be buried again under white fluff a few days later. Pi day (3.14) was celebrated with a delicious vegan apple pi. Saint Patricks day was a very chill Wednesday marked only by green colors and a dinner with some Irish Soda Bread and some green apple schnapps shots with Irish/Celtic music playing in the background. The spring solstice came on the 20th with sunshine and hope. Housemate family dinners and movie night became a standard Friday affair. Weekend hikes kept everyone going, even if many of them were through knee deep snow we made it to the top of the mountain most times. Picnics by the lake were freezing but worth it. Green house plants are blooming and my beans have surpassed me in height. One of my housemate’s quail eggs hatched! Five of the twelve eggs made it an the baby chicks are now at a different home in Burlington. Lots of bread was baked as the King Arthur Sourdough challenge was finally finished! Many assignments were completed and too many exams were taken (7 within three weeks and two were physics, ouch). My brain has been so scattered lately, going in and out of classes, social media, ideas and dreams, audiobooks and podcasts, homework and applications....I find myself constantly caught between needing to rest and relax to give myself a break while also trying to stay busy and alert to keep myself motivated and sane in a world that feels constantly like its on the brink of finally coming back together and yet falling further apart. March was a month of perseverance, as so many challenges were thrown our way again a year after the pandemic began. I’m not sure what life is like in other areas of the world, but in Vermont we are in an odd place of hope as vaccine rollouts begin and fear as the new COVID variant spreads throughout the state and campus infections reached almost two hundred in two weeks compared to the less than a hundred last semester. Thankfully myself and most of my friends have only tested negative during our twice-weekly COVID tests, but the fear is always in the back of everyone’s mind. Hopefully this new month of April will bring better things everyone’s ways, as we enter a new month and head deeper into the season of spring. I’ve added a plethora of random pictures form this past month, roughly in order of most recent to this post back to the beginning of the month with our jump into Lake Champlain. I hope you enjoy this peek into March in Vermont!