March 17th

I don't know about you, but I'm really a bit over winter. It's funny how you can be doing fine with winter, and it can be treating you fairly well on the whole, and then within the space of a few short days, numerous things go awry. And you haven't got light warm breezes and yellow flowers and the feel of grass beneath your feet to support you as sweep things into shape. (Well, you might be lucky enough to have a few crocuses, but they keep getting covered up with snow.)

And then, goodness gracious, it's St. Patrick's day, and that leprechaun pops in for morning tea, messing with wires and data as these geeky hispter-doofus leprechauns of the twenty-first century tend do. And as the leprechaun skips away and the emails-that-need-answering pour into your inbox at last, and drivers and folks around and even yourself all start to get snarlish, you realize you're at that point. Spring really needs to get here. 

But guess what? It's coming! And even if it might seem impossible that spring will soon be here, I'd like to share some proof. I hope it gives you as much of a lift as it gave me. 

So, following, a few things I saw on my walk.  

skunk cabbage shoots in non-frozen water

milky ice with withered edges

sporing moss, spring moss green

numerous red-winged blackbirds, buzz-trilling in the trees