Beautiful Spring

I was starting to feel really good about spring!

It had been beautiful until early this morning. Days had been in the 60's – one was even 68 this week. The sun was shining, I was planting pansies. Now the snow is back. It's hard to scrap the windows. No working outside today.

Temps aren't too cold though – my optimism is showing. Just like the tulips and daffodils, my optimism is coming up strong. There's no turning back now. The crocuses have been blooming. There must be close to 100 right by my front walk – a couple more scattered at the back door.

They just make you smile – like thinking spring is here.

Tim has been working hard this week – I have been supervising. I'm not very good at it I find. I'm a doer. But "due" to an encounter with the basement stairs, this week I have NOT been a doer. So I've actually gotten to walk/stand around and look at spring coming. Sit on a bench and feel the sun on my face while others worked around me. Look at pictures of flowers while putting together a list of all the gardens we need to work in. Thinking about what each person has in their yard. I can usually see those yards in my mind's eye – in summer, not in spring.

It's harder to remember the tulips and daffodils planted in different yards. They aren't there for long; I don't always get to see them. I rarely see the crocuses except in my own yard. But I know I've put them in, because everyone needs that optimism, especially this year.

So even though it doesn't really look like spring right now, tomorrow is officially SPRING. So Happy Spring and here's to another year of beautiful flowers in your yard.

Signs of Spring

The days are getting longer - check
The sun is a little warmer - check
Easter eggs and sandals in the store - check
Trees and shrubs are setting buds - check
Hawk in the front tree eating eggs - ?

I've been watching spring come - ever so slowly this year it seems. It's been too cold, too snowy and not sunny enough here in Denver. I'm ready for a beach vacation!

But this morning, my husband called me outside. There in the front yard, a hawk in a nest up in the tree. Several ravens were there (we don't have crows in Colorado - but they are the same bird basically). My husband swore he saw a squirrel in the nest and the hawk now had it. My first guess after watching the bird for a bit was it was trying to nest (another sign of spring). But then I realized it was probably just eating the eggs the ravens had already laid up there. I've lived in this house for 24 years and I can assure you I have never seen a hawk in my front yard - or my back yard or my neighbors' yards.

Is this another sign of the economic times? Even the birds are hard up for food. Or just more human encroachment affecting habitat? I live 1 mile from downtown Denver. There have been hawks in downtown nesting, but it's been a long time since one was actually sighted there. Last summer we had a fox sleeping in the front yard. We've seen the foxes often over the years; like the raccoons, but they live in the sewer. I was working out at the gym last week when I saw a fox crossing the frozen lake. I've often watched the birds in the middle of the lake; there must be a spring there (that word again). That was the first time I'd seen the fox on the lake. No one else in the gym noticed or cared. It was 8 a.m.ish. Was he hungry or just needed to move in the cold?

I have yet to see my harbingers of spring - the snowdrops out my back door. There's still too much snow. I usually see them in early February. It's almost March and they haven't appeared yet. I was out the other day (when it was warm) looking for daffodils poking out of the ground - they are staying put this year. Usually they have poked up a little by now just to see if they should start coming out. I still have 15 to 18 inches of snow on the north facing side of the yard. That snow has been there since before Thanksgiving. This has never happened in my 24 years here. The cats have started acting like kittens again, playful, hoping to chase insects and birds; getting practice in. They don't stay outside very long though.

We are supposed to have even more snow in March and April - our snowiest months - and summer is supposed to be excrutiating hot this year. Our heat zone here in Denver was upgraded to zone 6 from zone 5. More signs of global warming. Although, it's hard to believe in global warming when it's 12 or 20 degrees outside - especially when it is that temperature all day.

After sending this picture to my nephew, he wrote back - Spring is coming! Hold on!

And that it is - spring is coming. All the signs are there - even the hawk eating eggs.