Spring. Definitely.

There are a lot of reasons to believe that spring is finally here.  Really.  These are mine.  Bet you have some personal favorites too. 

• As this is written, my Weather Widget says it’s 61°F. at the Eastport weather station south of Barnes Park.  My outdoor thermometer agrees.  It must be true.
• The snowbirds are returning.  You can usually tell them by their tans, although some wily stay-at-homes have been sneaking off to tanning parlors just to confuse the issue.
• People are asking each other if they’ve spotted their first mushrooms, and being cagy with the answers. 
• I opened the honeycomb shades on my north-facing windows for the first time since Halloween.  (Have the spiders really been that busy or did I “forget” to clean off the dead bugs last fall?) 
• I just paid almost $500 to fill my shiny new LP tank. 
• Norton Bretz says that Torch Lake is starting to break up.  “Open water has appeared in front of Blue Heaven and Eastport Creek this morning even though everything else I can see from my front window is ice. The lake will be clear in a few days at the rate things are thawing now. Daffodils are peeping though the snow and winter appears to be mostly over.”
• Bosman’s sign says “Chick Days Are Here – Chicks are In.”  I headed into the store trying to decide whether to complain of sexism or ask whether Chicks of Advanced Years are also In, and found myself immersed in the noisy peeping coming from a row of galvanized tanks.  (Bosman’s signs are often ambiguous.  Just before Christmas they promised both “Safes-30% Off” and “Free Gift Wrapping.”  I longed to buy a gun safe just to watch ’em wrap it.  They said they’d give it a shot.)
• Last night a mosquito buzzed me.  He won’t do THAT again.  As my father pointed out elsewhere on this blog, where I come from we pack pistols just for shooting muskies.  We are not to be trifled with, particularly after a long winter. 
• Cowboy has replaced his snowshoes with mudflaps.  (Miss Sadie remains her usual tidy self.)
• The birds are back in force, twittering at each other about the dismal state of the nesting market, the tedium of the trip back from Florida, and the high cost of fresh mealworms.  They keep asking the chickadees and the goldfinches what they find to do during the winter when everyone is gone.  Such a racket.
• Yesterday I was able to drive all the way to Susie’s Hobbit Home at the end of a two-track, rather than parking out on Big Marsh Road and trudging up the lane.  On the way home I put the window down.