Well, no, it wasn’t my intent to miss my self-imposed deadline of Wednesday last week. But, stuff happens. This is better, though. Traditionally, I’ve taken a walk on the last day of winter and blogged about it in this series before. Now, that tradition has been continued, with the last entry of the series tomorrow.
The snow is just about gone in my area. Threatened significant accumulation locally from the Nor’easter last week never happened. At best, my area got an inch. There are other areas throughout the Northeast, though, that will still be seeing snow on the ground not just tomorrow, but into April. They truly have my sympathy. The warmer temperatures that are coming even before the end of this month will help make it all go away and become a memory fast enough.
Okay, so not to rub it in (much) to those who are still hip-deep in the white stuff, I was out on my snow-free and dry deck Sunday in my bare feet. I figured it was going to be cold, but I wasn’t going to be out there that long, so it wouldn’t be so bad. I have to say, the deck was actually warm and pleasant under foot. Although the air temperature was only in the mid-30s, the angle of the sun is now high enough that its rays more directly hit the deck. It felt great. I can’t wait for that to happen on a regular basis.
On my other walks, I wasn’t seeing much in the way of spring flowers trying to even send out their leaves. The only ones I was seeing were planted near houses, where escaping heat coupled with reflected sun’s warmth were bringing them up faster. But today, I finally saw something I’d been waiting for. There’s a patch of daffodils that somehow got started between a utility pole and a grate over a rainwater runoff. They’ve been there for years. They, too, have been slow to show signs of life. But finally, I got to see them. They’re only about an inch high and barely noticeable peaking out from under the leaf litter of autumn, but there they were, those yellow (soon to be green) shoots. About time, guys.
All the trees and bushes have buds on them, even the ones that won’t be sending out leaves for a while yet. The maples have been especially noticeable, as they’ve been sending up that sap that the syrup makers covet for a while. The sap has been feeding tips of branches which have been showing signs of waking for weeks. The heck with the maple syrup, much as I love it. Just show me some unfurling leaves!
So many of the migrating bird species are back now, although I still haven’t seen any other robins than the one I mentioned in an earlier post. People keep telling me they’re out there. I’m usually about two weeks behind everybody else in my first (live) robin sighting, but even today, looking for them in the places I always see them in the spring – nothing. In their place, however, were lots of other birds singing out their territory claims and even a few making nests. Yup, more than one bird with fluff or twigs in their beak heading for those places they’ve designated home to their spring-borne families. Now, there’s a sign of renewal if ever there was one.
As I returned from my walk, I looked out the door to my little balcony and saw the last vestige of snow from the igloo I created to keep my perishables from spoiling during our 12-hour power outage during Nor’easter #2. It’s just a football-sized patch of snow now that will likely be gone by the weekend, assuming I don’t take a shovel to it.
Hmm, I might have to do that tomorrow. Sort of a ritual to end the winter season. It’s been a long one – can you tell?
Only 1 day until Spring.
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