Signs of Spring

Out and about the last few days I've been noticing that nature is beginning to rejuvenate... Spring is truly just around the corner.  For a few weeks now, I've been watching robins in the tree outside my kitchen window.  The first robin sighting of the year is a grand thing to me as it means that winter is coming to end.  I am not a big fan of snow and cold.

The robins in my yard move faster than I can get my camera focused and zoomed in on them so I pulled this stock photo from another website.  And learned a lot about the American Robin and how to attract more of them to my yard .

I've also noticed the past week or so that the buds are noticeably swelling on most of the trees around town.  And just today I was thinking the lawn has a definite greenish hue that's different than the straw-like shade of winter months when it's dormant.  Tulip, hyacinth, daffodil, crocus and other bulbs have sent up leaves and a few are beginning to get flower buds.   And the rhubarb crowns are starting to poke out where leaves will soon uncurl.

The spiders seem to be waking up, too.  Yesterday I saw two in the bathroom (why do spiders so frequently show up in bathrooms anyway?) and just now one ran across my screen.  No worries, they are just harmless little critters that look very much like this European Garden Spider.  If I don't know what it is, I kill it.  But these live for another day.  I've even been known, if it was in the bathtub when I wanted to use it, to catch one in a dixie cup and let it go outside.  They do their part to keep insects that are harmful to my garden plants under control so, to me, they are part of the good guys that I want to protect and have hanging around.

Inspiration photo for patio though mine won't
be so elaborate with columns and a fireplace.
And it will have orange trumpet vine growing
overhead because I already have some of those.

A few more nice days and I'll be itching to get outside and dig into those flowerbeds and finish the patio structure and figure out how to do it and what to use to mulch the garden.  And of course then I'll complain about sore aching muscles that haven't seen that much or kind of movement in many months.  I may find my garden ambitions are bigger than my abilities but I'm sure planning on giving it my best shot.

Spring.  Bring it on!