Here in the meadow

THERE ARE BIRDS singing. Duh, it’s spring. But after last winter, when spring was delayed and snowy and white forever, it seems like an extra-size miracle that sunlight and warm weather and birds and grass have actually come to us in mid-March. For all our riches in Aspen, the real wealth has always been the town sitting in a mountain meadow, the ability to stand at 8,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies and take a deep breath of clean air. With our arrival, we don’t exactly help the pristine nature of the townsite. Just by driving in over sandy roads we add more pollution every day then was stirred up in hundreds of years of time in the olden days, before man figured out how to burn ancient muck. But still we are here. Happy. Present. Delighted. Mostly. One of our purposes is being a place for people where they can come and eat and drink and ski and forget and celebrate. But amidst all that, they sometimes join back together with the things that matter to them. Peace can be found here. SUNSHINE CONTINUES today with a high of 52 in town and southwest winds around 10 mph. Tuesday looking sweet as well, with a high near 53 degrees and winds up to 15 mp. The base depths are holding firm, with Snowmass at 75 inches, Highlands at 84 and Aspen at 53 inches. Good, solid coverage. Sunscreen now your most important piece of equipment. Hearing tales of lots of fund backcountry tours and the snowpack appears from a distance to be in good spring shape for touring.