In my world, Spring is heralded by some unique signs. First and foremost, my horses start to look extra shabby and their fur gets dull before it starts to fall out. The bird feeders start needing refills every morning because, yeah, you guessed it, the raccoons have come out of hibernation. We also have a LOT of O-o-o-possum eating the sunflower seeds this year. Ugly suckers. My dogs start throwing up a lot from eating dead things that have thawed in the woods (I know, ish, ick, bleurgh!)And...drum roll please... I walk out of my house in the morning and come face to antennae with something that looks a lot like a small lobster on my driveway. Yup, the crawdads have emerged and for some inexplicable reason they always go walk-about on my property after emerging from a long, snuggly Winter underground by the creek. I have no idea why...they over-winter in holes beside the creek. So when they pop out of their holes they're just a hop, skip, and a jump (or, in their case, a crawl, amble, and drag) to water. But instead they take a hard right and head through half an acre of trees, leaves, and muck to emerge on my lawn, and eventually the cement pad in front of my garage door.
Go figure.
What's really fun is watching my dogs when they come face to antennae with one of the little guys. Even my sweet, 90 pound huskie/lab mix, Otis, whom we affectionately call the mass murderer due to his unfortunate tendency to murder small critters for sport, (He's mostly reformed now because he absolutely hates when I'm mad at him.)backs off when those pinching claws come up. I need to get a picture of that...talk about David and Goliath!
Yeah, we have the usual signs too, budding trees, greening grass, mud up to our armpits, potholes erupting in roads...but everybody has those signs of Spring. In
my world, Spring emerges to a slightly different tune. And I welcome it happily. Because Winter can be a beautiful woman with flowing white hair and sparkling eyes, but Spring is a sprightly siren. And I admit that I'm a sucker for her sweet song.
Happy Spring everybody!
