An open winter?

"Beaver Pond'' (oil on panel), by Sue Charles, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.

That is, a beaver pond in an "open winter,'' with little snow. It has been open in most of southern New England so far this winter. Will we get clobbered soon? Or maybe we'll get most of our snow in March, as happened in 1956, after a very open winter until then? In any case,  innumerable surprises lie ahead.

Meanwhile, "live every day as if it's your last, and someday you'll be right'' -- a line from the great  movie Breaker Morant, set in the Second Boer War.