SPRING!

Daffodil 2 a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

I'm going to go ahead and announce it: Spring is here!

It's been two weeks since I first spotted crocus spears piercing the cold winter ground.

This week, I've seen daffodils blooming.

I've seen two bald eagles circling in the sky above me.

I've seen two peregrine falcons hollering back and forth at each other.

I've heard two million bird songs.

And, although the sky was spitting snow yesterday, today, the sun was shining, grass was growing green anew, the bike couriers had an extra little oomph in their pedaling, my gardening friends have been buying seeds and I know that, even though winter isn't finished with us yet, Spring is here.

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"He who hopes for spring with upturned eye never sees so small a thing as Draba. He who despairs of spring with downcast eye steps on it, unknowing. He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance."

~Aldo Leopold