Our garden languishes in vain expectation. It is somewhat aware that spring has arrived even if the symptoms are pathetically faint, for it has nudged lilies and irises, tulips and hyacinths sufficiently out of their long winter slumber to raise their tentative green shoots out of the garden soil finally released from winter's icy grip.

Which doesn't necessarily mean that the soil has warmed to any significant degree. More likely that anxiety to prevail over the reluctant-to-leave cold of winter has prompted those early-risers to make a show of defiance.

The tedium of a winter that will not leave is disheartening. Not only for us but for the flora and fauna around us. We feel badly for the robin picking away under our ornamental crab tree, seeking out sustenance. When night closes in and the temperatures once again drop below freezing we think of the early returnees in reverse flight and shudder for them.

Our local raccoons no longer semi-hibernate and now once again visit our compost bins nightly. Picking away at the food waste that we regularly place there comprised of inedible fruit and vegetable skins, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells but also leftovers that won't be used by us that they delve into; stale bread, bits of leftovers. They delicately pick through the offerings and zealously clean up afterward so we won't have to. They have been exceedingly well-mannered.

A pair of crows regularly comes around to the front of the house to take part in the morning picnics comprised of left-over toast or pancakes. They enjoy the offerings but as birds generally disliked, have been subject to abuse, and are very flighty; any movement they detect from the interior of the house sends them immediately aloft. Unlike cardinals and doves.

The local squirrels don't mind their presence, and while the crows are settled on the rail of the balustrades on the porch where cubed toast sits, squirrels place themselves on the porch floor and take their fill of whatever offerings are present. Jackie and Jillie don't think much of the presence of other animals outside the house, viewing that 'outside' as part of their territory, barking and carrying on when they spot those 'intruders'.

The moment we utter one word they recognize as referring to our outdoor guests our puppies zip off through the house in a flurry of activity to the front or the back to peer out windows to see who has come around that they can loudly chasten for their impudence in daring to tread on their territory.