Signs and Portents

If you look out the window with winter eyes you'll see snow that's still over a foot deep in places. Dozens of small birds huddle about the feeder and the sky above the horizon is the color of ice. But if you go out of doors at noon and listen, you can hear sounds of spring. The sunshine is melting the snow on the roof and the ice on the pond.

Spring is the sound of running water.

Squirrels are frenzied at this time of year. They chase each other up and down trees, sprinting after one another across the frozen yard. Birds are tentatively singing tunes rather than merely calling out. Squirrel chatter and bird song are signs of spring.

Before the cold forced them into dormancy, trees and bushes set next year's buds. Now the sun cradles them in warm hands, setting their quiet inner fire aglow. The sap is rising in the trees, too - around every trunk and sapling and bush is a ring of visible earth where the heat of renewed life has melted the snow.

Even the smallest withes generate heat.

Winter may still snarl and bare its teeth but it is being forced to retreat. Though pussy willows are not yet in evidence nor will there be snowdrops or crocus for some time, a month from now we will see the ground again; two months and the grass will be green. Winter eyes won't serve you much longer.

Waiting lilac buds.