"February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long."

-- Anna Quindlen

Actually, a few early-spring flowers have been appearinglately and for long stretches this winter (so far) the days have evoked March or even April. Some afternoons have even produced a kind of sweet spring melancholy.

Ms. Quindlen (who lives north of New York City) might have noted that while February might suggest death, it's usually a bad time in the Northeast to try to bury anyone because of the frozen ground. (The movie Manchester-by-the-Sea made light of this.)

The weather this winter, however, has often been boffo for burials, although many have been put off to April because of regional tradition.

-- Robert Whitcomb