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It’s Officially Spring !
“The supermarket is a wonderful invention – efficient, convenient, virtually unlimited choice, and everything squeaky-plastic clean. Here you see the delightful weekly alternative: the weekly market in the village of Cucuron, where the stalls are set out around the shimmering rectangle of one of the biggest ‘bassins’ in Provence. It’s true that you won’t find here the essentials of modern life. This isn’t the place to come for canned and deep-frozen products, dishwashing liquid, pre-packed dinners for two, or deodorant.
But if your shopping list includes fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, local cheeses, the odd curious kitchen gadget, a variety of sausages, ham on the bone, and wine from the village ‘merchand de vins’, you won’t be disappointed. And even if you buy nothing except a cup of coffee in the market cafe, you will have spent the morning in lyrical surroundings you won’t forget for a long time.” from My Twenty-five Years in Provence by Peter Mayle.
Happy First Day of Spring! Plant some herbs, visit a park, bring some early flowering branches indoors. 
Buy local produce this year and cheer the season of renewal with a glass of wine! See you next year Punxsutawney Phil!
Here in Western New York my unofficial end of Winter is when I look at the 2-week forecast and every day has a high over 32 degrees. That happened several days ago. But it’s still nice to make it official.
I knew it was spring last week. Our chorus frogs are back in the overflow pond across the street.
The Lens-artists Photo Challenge topic this week is “Change of Scenery”, and I have a great post in the works. I’ll post a link when it’s ready.
We are having spring like weather in the day time, and temps edging down into freezing at night. Everything is emerald green.
The birds and animals are into the merriment of having more than enough to eat and drink. I expect to see a lot of baby deer in a few short months.
This year, the turkey flock out and about near our property is rather young and scrawny. But in past years, the more mature male turkeys strutted their stuff, as illustrated here:
If several mature males are in the same patch of land, they will act as though they are contestants vying for inclusion in the turkey version of “The Bachelor.” They will spend an hour furling and unfurling their feathered glory. Meanwhile the hens act completely indifferent to it all.
No croaking yet, but the sound I most equate with spring is the bird that only knows two notes. I figured out that it’s the cardinal and he’s chirping for a mate. He sings his two notes over and over, and eventually the same two notes will answer back from a distance. Then the competition begins where you see more than one cardinal chasing the female, kinda like Spring Break in Miami.
That story reminds me of when we lived in Franklin, MA. We had several acres and it was a nature show. For example, we had the turkey, and a colorful pheasant showed up who we think fell in love with the female turkey. He was always hanging around her. Then I saw my first grouse. I didn’t know what it was – he would pound his feet really fast and turn in a circle, kicking up dust like that Peanuts character. I guess his mating dance worked because a gaggle of baby grouse showed up.
Around Thanksgiving one year, a couple of big turkeys got up on the back porch deck, looking in the windows of the sliding glass back doors. I think they were trying to gauge the size of the oven to make sure they wouldn’t fit…
We saw deer all the time, but it was the fist time I ever saw moose prints – they were huge. It looked like bigfoot. We also had coyote, which was apparent one spring when the ground thawed and I found a deer leg! Ugh!
I was just watching an episode of Last Man Standing set during the early days of the pandemic and realized how far we’ve come since last year at this time. I was out and about with hundreds of people enjoying the wild flower booms in California yesterday. It was glorious.
In Alaska increasing daylight is the first sign of spring and it is very much appreciated after the darkness of December and January. 2 degrees below zero at sunrise, temps will break soon but not yet.
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/03/21/lens-artists-photo-challenge-140-change-of-scenery/
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/03/18/just-beachy/