The Spring equinox is coming on Wednesday, and despite the general picture in these parts, there are intimations here and there that the earth will soon open up and Spring will spring forth. There have been Snowdrops blooming in a yard on my route to work for the last week. And today walking in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park there were more signs: birdsong is getting louder and more complex - Cardinals, Song Sparrows, Phoebes, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Flickers, and Red-winged Blackbirds; the clumps of Daffodils along the Dykeman Walking Trail as it runs by the creek are finally up, and one clump by the red bridge is actually blooming; the Mallards in the duck ponds seem to be more brightly colored; and there are visitors from outside the area showing up, restless in the coming Spring and struck with wanderlust. Here are scenes from today's walk.
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| Daffodils in bloom along the creek |
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| A pair of Mallard drakes on the north duck pond |
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| A visiting Herring Gull on the main duck pond |
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| Hills rolling into the distance, seen from the top of the meadow. They're not green yet, but it's coming |
© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger
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Yeah, we're getting there, slowly but Shirley. I mean, surely.
ReplyDeleteDude, that joke is so old (HOW OLD IS IT?), it has a beard longer than mine!
DeleteWell, yeah, it's old, but at least I gave it a different spin. Usually it's something like "Surely you're not serious." And the reply is "Yes, I'm serious. And don't call me Shirley." which only really works if you hear it, not read it.
DeleteA few weeks ago, two women at he flea market were talking as I approached them. The first said "I was married at a very young age." The second said, "I was, too." I exclaimed "Wow, you were young!" which would only work if you heard the exchange and thought (as I pretended to) that the second woman had said "I was two." I followed up with "Where'd you grow up, Alabama?"