Spring

Goose and killdeer (and grass)

If I look quite closely, in just the right light, I can almost see grass starting to turn green. It’s still subtle and not very convincing, but the turn is beginning. Grass is quick to turn green. Even after weeks of dry weather in August, the lawns are green again within hours of a summer rainstorm. In spring, it perhaps takes a bit longer for that first, fresh hint of bright green to push its way through the browns of winter, but the change still happens quickly.

The temperature here has yet to break 50 degrees, though it edges a bit nearer to that mark every day. By tomorrow, when the clouds disappear and the sun is free to cast its warmth and brightness over the mountain, it will happen. The killdeer are already here, and the geese are searching for likely nesting spots. Yesterday, the phoebe returned to call again in the early morning. Spring is slowly pushing its way onto the forest around me, one little change at a time.

So, for me that means it’s time to put away the snowshoes, which I barely used this year. I will also start to put away the winter sweaters, too. I might keep one of them available for a bit yet. The weather might still turn cold for a day or three. It’s also time to clear the decks of winter detritus and get the front and the back ready for a lounge outdoors. Well, perhaps I can wait a bit on that last part.

From my perch on the mountain, enough signs of spring are about now that even a winter that arrived late but then never seemed to end is over. Time for me to come out of hibernation and get organized for the new season ahead.