Spring's Official

With the passing of the equinox yesterday its officially spring. Might not know it by the cool temps but on my morning walks this week I've seen plenty of evidence that everything is about to burst to life. The whole world feels pregnant, plants lush with all the recent rain and ready to open flower buds and send up new shoots.

I spotted these geese checking out the pond, every year there's a new group of goslings down there, no sign of nest building yet, but I think this is our annual pair.

I'm bored a bit with the winter birds and eagerly anticipating the migration which will be in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'm rediscovering some of the strikingly beautiful commoners, blue jays, robins and kingfishers. I was studying a pair of blue jays on the drive way this morning, a patchwork of white, and light and dark blue feathers on there tails and the backs of their wings looks almost like a checkerboard. And the robins, oh so ordinary- NOT- speckled faces, yellow eye ring, rusty red breast, they are stunners really.

The kingfishers have been very loud this week both at the pond and along the creek, calling their ratchety cry as they swoop close to the water and then soar up into the trees, their crests erect when they land on a branch. I think they are probably working out some territory issues, who is going to nest in which section of the creek bank, who gets the pond as their turf? Or is it mating activity? Not sure, maybe some of both.

May apples began to unwind this week like so many tiny green umbrellas.

With the extension of the daylight I can feel myself growing too, reaching for the light, everyday a new level of energy for work and thought and writing.