A Winter's Spring in Ridgefield: Add Your Photos!

The calendar is creeping forward. Daylight saving time has come and gone, bringing a darker morning commute but a brighter trip home.March Madness, the sports bridge from football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s Opening Day, is in full swing.

Spring, for the lack of a better term is, well, starting to spring.

Here in Ridgefield, spring has its own rhythm. Look around and you’ll see signs the seasons are changing.

Registration is underway for the Babe Ruth 2011 baseball season. It’s time to sign the kids up for spring swimming lessons at the rec center. Ridgefield women are pounding the pavement training for “Run Like a Mother.” The Ridgefield Sport shop is holding its annual spring sale. Last weekend, Ballard Park was the scene of a St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt, a preamble to the Easter egg hunt just a few weeks away.

While Ridgefield shakes off the winter doldrums, the winter of 2010-11 won’t be easily forgotten. At last count, more than 70+ inches of snow had fallen in town, well beyond double the typical average for a season.  

As a result, Ridgefield residents shoveled and plowed this winter more than at anytime in recent memory. Then we did it all again a few days later and repeated the cycle as often as necessary.

Driveways weren’t the only places that needed shoveling. This year plenty of roofs also needed to be cleared. It was reported Ridgefield Hardware ordered a shipment of 400 roof rakes and sold out in a matter of days. The store’s typical roof rake sales in a given year? Four. Yes, this was a winter that didn’t pass quickly and won’t be quickly forgotten.

A few weeks ago, I broke out the camera to document the snowfall. A few of the photos are posted here. Like the one showing the driveway to be a sheet of ice. While I was out of town, a cycle of snowfall, melting and refreezing left a layer of ice over an inch thick, something only the Ridgefield Ice Mice could love.

Repeated plowings piled up the snow to tree branch heights on the driveway.  Then there was the barbecue. Normally put into use any time of year, this season proved to be too much for even the heartiest griller. 

So as Ridgefield begins to thaw out, what are your best (or worst, depending on how you look at things) photos from the winter of 2010-11? Send them along and we’ll share them on the site.

 So long, winter, and here’s to hoping spring arrives gently.