Finally. Tone-deaf nature has heard our plaintive appeals. To her good nature, of course. To allow us to not only dream of the arrival of spring, but to experience it, in all its warming glory and glorious colours.

The colours can wait. But the warmth has been badly needed. Along with a cessation of too-frequent rain events. The poor residents living in flood plains need some relief from flooding. And we, perhaps not equally in need of rescue, need some solid indication that spring is not some fantasy but an actual event that would eventually arrive.

Spring came in yesterday with all her baggage. The sun was a fireball in a clear, blue ocean. Utterly dazzling. Absolutely wonderful. Unbelievably comforting. It seemed to us we would never reach the point with the temperature soaring to 20C, and yesterday it did just that.

With spring here our gardens will once again arise, its many and varied shrubs, trees, perennials, remember that they too have a wish to show what they can do in the sphere of exquisite colours, shapes, fragrances.That they will once again bloom is no longer an illusion. All the required ingredients for them to thrive have finally if bashfully tardily, come on the scene.

It was so warm yesterday afternoon we hardly knew how to dress. Light jacket or none? I chose the latter, my husband the former. Before we exited the ravine we were both extremely warm, and he had shifted his jacket, light as it was, from his back to his arm.

We had stopped on the way to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie to speak to several neighbours. One had just emerged from the ravine with her rambunctious dog doing its best to be patient while we stood talking on the street about the shape of things to come in the ravine. We stopped at another neighbour's house to commiserate with him over his recent surgery on his ankle which will keep him out of business while it heals, for several months.

And then, off we went -- overheated from the direct sun pouring down on our heads as we talked -- and directly down the first hill into the forest. And it was sublime. Not so much the landscape itself, awaiting its turn to begin greening out the forest canopy and shooting vegetation out of the forest floor to entertain us throughout the summer and fall months as various spring flowers strut their brief but appreciated appearances, as though to remind us they're there, after all.

As for Jackie and Jillie, once they're in the ravine, romping through the forest trails, they're in their element, intense with interest about all the irresistible smells calling for their attention, and satisfying their curiosity about the appearance of any new and strange things. Insects are now emerging as well, and until mosquitoes begin to appear, we'll appreciate their presence, as well.