2013: The First Full Day Of Spring …

Really?  

Is this what spring is going to look like in 2013?

It was the first, official,  full day of spring … the ice has broken on Lake Ontario, the ducks are back … but it looked so much more like a day in November.

Spring Is Here … 

Although it doesn't look like it today, spring is here. I’m home now and walking in my own neighborhood. Here there are no Asian vendors hawking their mountains of vegetables, dried shrimp and roasting nuts. There are no carts filled with bok choy and no tall buildings. There are no honking horns, rumbling subway trains and no wailing sirens; the air is not filled with the pungent smells of the fish market. The screaming sounds of the city are far away today as I walk on my peaceful country road and it’s snowing on and off but I know spring is here … I can hear it! 
Here I can hear the red winged blackbird’s familiar "Cronk-a-reeeee" from the marshy edge of the still frozen lake; I can hear the crows cawing about the weather. Even the winter birds are trilling out a different song today, and today, I saw my second Robin singing "Cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up!" He's telling me, "the snow will go … spring is here."

Happy Ides of March! The count down begins.