Published March 15, 2011

Just two short months ago the State House was covered in snow. Now, flowers are beginning to sprout. (hyperion327/Flickr)

- A reporter’s notebook

What a nice day out today.

The sun is shining and the sky is blue. I saw a bunch of crocuses the other day and out on the State House grounds I can see the tips of daffodils peeking up through the ground.

The calendar indicates that this is the final full week of winter — a winter many of us hardy New Englanders are glad to see in our rear-view mirror.

Remember those snow storms that came at us fast and furious? That big one the day after Christmas, and all the others that followed? It seemed like every couple of days.

As a WBUR reporter, I was often the guy out in those storms, giving updates on trouble spots and talking to folks inconvenienced by mother nature.

I remember chatting with a couple at a makeshift shelter in Scituate. A huge wave had come crashing though the door of their rented house right on the beach. It ripped the door right off its hinges. They were okay. Just shaken up a bit.

I remember talking to another fellow in Scituate as we watched his boyhood home burn to the ground. An arcing utility line sparked the blaze, but since the neighborhood was flooded out, the fire department couldn’t get an apparatus close enough to douse the flames.

Then there was another storm where I spoke with a long line of people waiting at a Dunkin Donuts in Whitman. It was crowded because their own homes had been without power for three or four hours, and they needed their jolt of caffeine to start their day.

I was none too pleased when I almost ruined a pair of shoes riding around with a state Department of Transportation crew as they unplugged clogged storm drains along I-93. A sudden rain, coupled with those huge snowbanks, turned low spots on the roadway into lagoons.

But since Friday, after hearing the stories and seeing the pictures from Japan, I’ve put things in perspective.

It wasn’t that bad a winter after all.