You Know It's Spring When
Spring has arrived here in Ontario, Canada, and this is how I know:
It’s lighter longer in the evening when everyone is indoors watching TV — and darker longer in the morning when they’re outdoors traveling to work or school.
The stores are full of autumn stuff, and you’ve missed the moment (a Sunday afternoon at the end of the Christmas sales) for buying shorts or sandals.
Snowstorms now involve thunder and lightning.
The bulbs in your garden are dying of heat exhaustion, the day after they emerged out from under a snowdrift.
You hear the whine of power tools somewhere in the neighbourhood.
Birds fill the air with loud, cheerful song — an hour before you need to get up!
There are holes in the garden where you planted bulbs last autumn and plump squirrels are waddling across your deck wondering when you’ll be providing their next meal.
Driving to work, you enjoy that first smell of squashed skunk in the morning.
Dog walkers are smiling, and their dogs are too frisky by half.
My bike is rusty and stiff and, it turns out, so am I!
People are outdoors washing their cars.
And, finally, the sun actually warms me as I set out to wander and ponder the plot of my next book.
