It’s official, spring is finally here.

At long last we have slipped from winter’s grasp and are now enjoying Mother Nature’s awakening.

Living in the city one is aware of the changes happening, most of all the longer days and warming temperatures. But out here, the transformation is observed first hand, up close and personal as it were, which makes it all that much more amazing to watch and enjoyable to experience.

There still remains some snow in deep, shaded forest areas, but the flora is pushing hard to get the most of a short growing season. Early daffodils and crocuses are in bloom. The hyacinths are showing colour and the marsh marigolds have braved the icy waters to push up new growth and the promise of a bright splash of yellow along the lakeshore. The trees are in flower, the sap is running, and leaf buds are fat and juicy, waiting for just the right conditions to burst forth and clothe the naked branches.

Our seasonal avian visitors have also returned. Robins, phoebes and the other snowbirds are scoping out good nesting sites in anticipation of raising the next generation or two before the days again shorten and the southern migration begins.  The loons are on the lake singing their mournful mating songs and the hawks are hunting from the nearby trees. Even the turkey vultures are back, busily cleaning up the winter’s dead recently exposed by the melting snow.

And last, but certainly not least, human spirits are lifted with the higher sun and negativity is drawn from the soul. After all our natural habitat is not in these enclosed, sterile environments where we tend to spend the winter months, but out of doors surrounded by, and a part of, nature itself.

So that’s where I’ll be for the next few months, out of doors, making the most of our all too brief summer.