It's Coming!

Although there has been for several weeks, now there's no doubt about it. It's coming. Slowly, surely, inexorably working it's way toward all of us. Spring. Today I heard birds I haven't heard in a long, long time. This week I saw and heard two cranes fly overhead that routinely do so every summer. I haven't heard or seen them since last Fall. The days are a little longer and I can see my koi stirring in the bottom of the water garden. There's a thin cover of ice over the small pond, but beneath, two goldfish slowly maneuver around. About a week and a half ago, we saw tiny shoots of daffodils starting to emerge from the frozen soil. Then it snowed again and again. Just like it's been doing for 3 solid months now. And every day as I walked past the spot where we'd seen the shoots, I'd wonder what was going on under all that snow. Did the little shoots freeze and die? Were they stuck at the place where they were when we last saw them? Kind of frozen in time?. Or was it possible that even under a blanket of snow, they were aware of lengthening days and slightly warmer temperatures? Well the snow has melted and look what's happened.

They've been bravely growing the whole time. And tomorrow is March 1st. Although my mother always said that the real changes in the weather don't start until St. Patrick's day, on March 1st we have little changes. And it's SUCH a relief. I think this winter might actually end after all.