Groundhog day thaw

On Groundhog Day, the snow was still on, but we were starting to get a thaw with temperatures approaching 50 F.  There you can see that there is finally some gravel starting to show through on our lane.

Much of our lane, though is partially shaded by woods along the south side of the road.  This means that the snow and ice stays on longer than in other areas. 

This is the township road that leads away from the entrance to our lane, looking to the south.  You can still see a glaze of ice on the roadway but some gravel becoming visible.

I, of course, checked my hives for activity and was happy to see that there were some bees flying around the two hives that were alive at the beginning of winter.  The hive on the right was very active and I wasn't sure if I was seeing activity on the hive on the left, or just some bees driving over from the first hive.

There was lots of activity at the bottom entrance of the hive on the right, with lots of bees flying and crawling around at the entrance.  There were a few bees coming and going from the top entrance  too -- a hole in the front of the top box holding a sugar block for emergency feeding in winter.

There were a few bees crawling around on the other surviving hive so am cautiously optimistic that this one is surviving the cold too.

The land to the south of our house falls away to a ravine with a small creek in the bottom.  Today the creek was swollen with muddy melt water.

Here the same swollen stream meanders away to the east through the snow.