Another winter wonderland just as we are starting to dream of warmer days ahead, flowers in the garden and outdoor adventures.  As annoying as this may be, we, here in New England, are use to storms like this in March.  At least March has come in like a lion and should go out like a lamb.

In actuality, March can be very damaging.  These late winter storms, although not this one, can be very heavy with a pasty wet and heavy snow breaking tree limbs and damaging rooftops.  On the other hand, the sun is stronger and the snow melts quickly.

Instead of going to the gym today as I had planned, I will put my energy into house cleaning.  It's a hearty beef stew for dinner tonight and if I have the time and energy, I will bake some bread.  I will dream of Spring......only nineteen days away!

Today we stayed close to home.  It was Steve's last day of vacation and we just wanted to be alone, together for just a little while longer.  We drove down country roads of Candia and Deerfield just drinking in the sweetness of early summer.  Trees with their leaves full and moist from the rain and drizzle we had had earlier  were shading us from the sky above making our way seem like an enchanted forest where there wasn't another soul around for miles.

The winding roads that we were on passed by old New England farms that looked as they had not been touched by human hand for more than two or three hundred years.  From old colonial, to saltbox, to log cabin, federalist style and early cape, they were all there.  Some had candlelights in every window.  Some had fences of stone standing without wear of years.  There were views of ponds, hay fields and mountains that took my breath away.  To think, all of this had been just beyond our own backyard, waiting to be discovered.

We had placed a CD in the player.  Little had I realized the comforting folk songs of the sixties and early seventies were transporting us to another world that was a secret treasure  no one else would be able to understand or visit as we had.  The closeness between us has  always been there, but for this day we shared the same visions and dreams as our hearts beat as one and we breathed for each other in a love that was beyond anything I have ever known.

My heart ached as I longed to keep this feeling forever, but, reality had to find us again and our lives beyond this came floating back to earth.  How grateful I was for the experience.  It was then that I realized we could have this again and again as we age, for each year brings us closer to a time when we won't have to think about being apart for hours on end.  We will soon be on the threshold of our golden years of retirement.  The preparation that we make now will be the reward we will share together later on.

A Sunday drive through the small towns and hamlets of coastal Maine is what we did yesterday.  We followed the coastal route 1 through Kittery, to Ogunquit, to Portland where we stopped for dinner before taking the highway back home from Old Orchard Beach.  The salty brine scent of the marshes as the tide came in was a comforting sign that I was where I wanted to be.  In my opinion, there is no greater place on this earth than that of the rocky coastline of Maine.

My uncle Morris once said that the only place you could find dragons and mermaids were in Kennibunkport.  As you drive through the saturated mist along the shore, you can feel the magic that leads one to believe these legends of old are indeed true and you search with your heart to find these mystical creatures if only to return to childhood for just a short time.

The small, quaint, towns with beautiful gingerbread trim and candlelights in the window, stand out along the winding turns of the road to becken one to stop and browse the intersting antique shops and boutiques.  Each one is an adventure in itself that you will remember for the rest of your life.  Should you make a purchase in one of these shops, it will call out to you time and time again to return and relive the adventure once more.

So, now, here I am back home not so many miles away in New Hampshire where I will spend today cleaning our home while thinking on tomorrow when Steve and I will return to Portland, Me. to take a dear friend of ours to lunch.  As this week is a vacation week for us, I know my most memorable day is less than twenty-four hours away.

The Boston Celtics pulled out the championship on home court tonight!  It was like watching the Dream Team of the 1980s all over again.  This team is that great!  So, Party the night away all you fans.  You deserve it!!