Twelve Moons of the Year. Significant Sentences. February.

Significant sentences from The Twelve Moons of the Year by Hal Borland, a chronology of the New England seasons. February.

"But in upper New England there is a wry twist to the legend of the groundhog...hope for sunshine so the groundhog can see its shadow...means there will be only six more weeks of winter.," p. 35.

"February probably will be capricious...usually is...the traditional battleground of warring weather systems." p. 37.

"...but when February relaxes for a day or two it is a promise." p. 39.

"The jay insists on eating alone, threatening sparrow, chickadee, and titmouse with baleful eye and rapier beak." p. 40.

"...hear the trickle of melt underneath the snow." p. 42.

"...the woodsy smell of violets." p. 42.

"We can split atoms, send rockets to the moon, fly faster than sound, but we still can't subdue a blizzard." p. 43.

"And the cardinal's whistle is like nothing else in birdom." p. 45.

"...one could even say that spring began to assert itself when the angle of sunlight shifted ever so slowly after the winter solstice." p. 46.

"You can't hear, and you can scarcely see, the alteration of a shadow, which was all that really happened." p. 46.

"The barred owl...usually utters a nine-note series of hoots that has been aptly put into the words, 'Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?' " p. 47.

Tomorrow: February, Part Two.