Spring!

Spring officially arrives in the early morning hours of March 20 and the flowers of the redbud tree, along with their accompaniment of native bees, are here to greet it.

Of course, spring has been here unofficially for several weeks now, but with the coming of the vernal equinox today, our calendar will finally match our weather.

The word equinox is derived from Latin words meaning "equal night," and on this day, the hours of daylight and night are approximately equal and the sun rises in the due east and sets in the due west. Spring brings increasing daylight, and temperatures in our part of the world begin to heat up rather rapidly.

This is the time of the rebirth of both flora and fauna. I can see it in my garden with the perennials that died back during the winter now putting up fresh shoots as they get ready for a growth spurt, and I see and hear it at one of my bluebird boxes as the bluebird babies that have been assiduously cared for by their hard-working parents for a week and a half now will soon be ready to fledge. New life is bursting out everywhere!

And on the vegetable garden fence, the 'Tangerine Dream' crossvine blooms in its glorious flush of spring beauty.

Welcome sweet spring and don't be in any hurry to give way to nasty old summer!

Groundhog day plus one

What did your own personal groundhog have to say about the prospects for an early spring on his big "coming out" day yesterday? Well, I can tell you if there were any of the furry rodents poking their heads out of their hibernation dens yesterday in my area, they most definitely did NOT see their shadow or any other shadow. The sun that would have caused such a shadow to be cast has been in hibernation itself for many days now.

All the same, good old Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog of the nation, apparently did see his shadow yesterday, dooming us to six more weeks of winter. His prediction was further confirmed by Big Al the Alligator of Gator Country. Big Al refused to break his hibernation by eating, thus indicating that winter isn't nearly over yet.

It seems to me that every year ol' Phil sees his shadow and scampers back into his den. I ran this theory by AKH (All-knowing Husband) who snorted, "Of course, he does! It's just like the movie Groundhog Day. Where do you think they got that name? It's the same thing every year, over and over and over again. We're in an endless loop."

Of course, AKH is a skeptic when it comes to animals predicting weather - or anybody predicting weather, for that matter. (In fact, come to think of it, he's a skeptic about most things.) After living with him for all these years, I'm afraid a bit of his skepticism has rubbed off on me.

You see, I don't really think it matters what Big Al or PP or the Channel 13 weatherman says. The SUN says that the vernal equinox will come on March 20 this year, and the sun rules. That is the date that winter will end and spring will begin here in the northern hemisphere of our "big blue marble." And that is about six weeks from now.

Hmmm...I guess maybe Phil and Al weren't so far off, after all.