Living along a fjord that cuts through steep sided mountains has pluses and minuses. I feel the negatives most on January days when the sun barely manages to crest the Douglas Island ridge. Plato’s’ analogy of the cave rings true on those days. But today, Aki and I experience the benefits of fjord land.

After a three-mile drive from salt water, the little dog and I are crossing a mountain meadow still blessed with snow patches. It’s in the mid-50’s so I can get by with just a sweatshirt. Aki wears nothing. We visit this meadow each year just before true spring. The air is sweet and clean, as if expired by a land thankful to be free of most of its snowy burden. Thrush and robins sing, Stellar’s Jays scold. The little dog rolls in every snow patch we find and then runs it’s length, savoring the way it gives beneath her tiny feet.