Signs of Spring

Lo and behold..... with all the snow we had I didn't expect to see the lawn until May.... but all our snow has gone except the crusty, icy stuff left in the deep shadowed ditches and woods. In both the front and back gardens bulbs have sprouted wee shoots an inch or so out of the soil. A few of our songbirds are back; cardinals have been around for a few weeks and robins have just arrived. There were a group of 10 or so jumping about on the greenbelt feeding this afternoon. Lots of chickadees and wrens take turns at the feeder. Although lots of geese winter over here their numbers appear to be increasing. Every brook, stream and river is rushing with run-off.

We've had a couple of mild days together so Lynda and I have spent some time in the yard picking up after the dogs and getting the yard raked. Milo, being part Jack Russell, is a digger and a chewer. The yard is still sporting craters from his digging efforts back in the fall. Through the winter he has pruned every shrub and tree branch that he could jump to - quite a height considering the depth of the snow we had. I swear his daddy must have been a beaver; not a dog at all. He eats as much wood as he does dog food.