Are we close to Spring yet? We're getting warmer!

April is more than half gone. Signs of spring increase daily. While walking our dog at lunch today, we headed toward the pond north of the house. There SiSi and I saw:

• a mink, prowling the pond's banks and exploring the underbrush
• a pair of mallards, serenely paddling toward the western end of the pond
• whatever grasses grow roadside and on the banks sending longer and longer green blades
• leaves on the bushes emerging more and more from their bud burst

As we neared home again we saw a mourning cloak butterfly, our second of the year. It's possible spring may be arriving, finally.

Our suspicions about spring were reinforced when we walked the Better Half's dog as she nurses a spring cold. Franco and I headed south rather than north. As we returned home, on the far side of the road we noticed the year's first dandelion.

April's first dandelion

Photo by J. Harrington

A couple of days ago a hen turkey scurried away across the neighbor's hay field. When she had enough separation from us she crossed the road and headed into a patch of woods on our property. Several minutes later, a tom turkey emerged from a different part of the same patch and wandered one of our fields before returning to the shelter of the woods.

Isn't it amazing what warmer temperatures and some sunshine can prompt to go rambling around the neighborhood?

Dandelions

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - 1825-1911

 Welcome children of the Spring,
   In your garbs of green and gold,
Lifting up your sun-crowned heads
   On the verdant plain and wold.

As a bright and joyous troop
   From the breast of earth ye came
Fair and lovely are your cheeks,
   With sun-kisses all aflame.

In the dusty streets and lanes,
   Where the lowly children play,
There as gentle friends ye smile,
   Making brighter life's highway

Dewdrops and the morning sun,
   Weave your garments fair and bright,
And we welcome you to-day
   As the children of the light.

Children of the earth and sun.
   We are slow to understand
All the richness of the gifts
   Flowing from our Father's hand.

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