After what felt like months of snow (but was actually just a couple of weeks), it finally finished melting, and today's temperature reached the low sixties (which of course will not last). But spring is definitely on its way, and it is not only the calendar that says so.
The grackles are making their way back into the area, and while not everyone likes them (and a friend has so many at her place that the other birds can't get to the food she puts out), the big iridescent birds with yellow eyes are always a sign of spring for me. At least one pair of cardinals has been courting on the back patio, and the lawn strip maple was being checked out by what I recently learned is called a banditry of chickadees. Perhaps because someone decided their black caps resemble the masks of cartoon bank robbers? The bird chorus is also increasing as the boys start trying to impress the girls.
Technically, mosses grow all year here, but any time a plant blooms, I think spring, and the mosses on some nearby bricks are definitely blooming (or whatever it is that mosses do--I feel a need for study coming on). Their miniature worlds please me.
Of course, the plants we usually associate with spring are out there as well. Daffodils are poking up, and a neighbor's snowdrops are in full bloom. At least two kinds of asters are showing foliage, and the snow crocuses are the unmistakable announcement that spring is on its way.
