First Day of Spring

Art by Nichol Brown -- Marcus's mother, Fiona's grandmother, Facebook friend.

We've made it through another winter.  Here are the signs:

•  The heat has stopped running and we are sleeping with the windows open most nights now.
• The fig tree is leafing out.
• A Canada Goose has taken to her nest on the island in our pond at as she does every spring -- is it the same goose from last year? Offspring of the goose who sat there last year? How do new geese know the exact spot for the nest?
• Pear trees blooming
• Azaleas blooming
• Pollen
• The clocks sprang forward a couple of weeks ago.
• "Doing Taxes" is rapidly rising in priority on the running To-Do List.
• Christy and Morris were here this weekend on the first leg of their sailing trip to the Bahamas. They will be gone until early June -- they have long planned to leave in early spring so they can get back before hurricane season.

Good friends, Bahamas bound.

 And a bit from What the Day Gives by Jeanne Lohman:

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin's difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.