February was part of a long, hard winter, with roads and schools closed frequently, electricity, computers and phones off for days at a time. Under those circumstances, our usual high standard of intensive, daily, rapid reading improvement could not be achieved. We had to try to be satisfied with mere maintenance and a bit of improvement for most of the month.

I’m delighted to see spring crocuses today, heralding continued warmer weather and the end of winter’s unique transportation problems.