After complaining incessantly about the cold, the rain and the misery both bring when they're non-stop, of several weeks back, we're being lavished with warm, sunny and dry weather. Nothing to complain about. Whatever will we do to compensate? Well, in praise of spring, the admission that it's finally arrived and is here to stay until she passes the torch of warmth and sun over to summer.

 

We're enjoying warm and sunny days and when nightfall arrives, it becomes once again cool and dark, but no rain as yet. We decided in a tip of the teapot to this transition period, to have cream of broccoli soup for dinner last night accompanied by whole-wheat-cheese dinner rolls, and the combination was just perfect alongside raspberries served in yoghurt.

 

Jackie and Jillie deeply appreciate this change as well. They've been asking repeatedly for us to open the sliding breakfast doors leading to the deck. I'm inclined at times not to 'notice' them when I get fed up with being a doorman, but Irving never fails to notice and obligingly slides back the door for them. No one does that for us. Our old screen doors presented no problem to Button and Riley; it moved so easily back and forth they always opened it themselves with their tiny snouts. And then forgot to reverse them to close.

 

So, it's warm and it's bright and it's breezy, and our puppies' expectation that the day holds a pleasant romp through the forest with them cannot possibly go unnoticed. And out we went. No more wet, muddy trails. Everything is completely dry. And so no more little rubber boots for Jackie and Jillie. They won't adorn their tiny feet again until next winter.

 

Every time we enter the forest there are changes to be noted. The thimbleberry shrubs which abound in the ravined forest as leafing out, following after the raspberry canes. Wild strawberries are much less in evidence. We saw for the first time today, the presence of increasingly rare red Baneberry. Jackie and Jillie met up with some of their friends and enjoyed brief little sniffs with them. 

 

Back home again we did a cursory little exploration of the garden. The Saxifrage plants are beginning their bloom, and the bleeding hearts look gracefully beautiful. The snakehead fritillery is still showing off nicely, and up the length and breadth of the rock garden, periwinkle is in bloom, interrupted in one place by the presence of a pasque flower that unfailingly presents itself around Easter.

 

The backyard Magnolia tree has opened its blooms, just a week or two behind its much larger relative at the front of the house. This is an exciting time of year for those who take stock of nature's evolving weather scene. And, of course, for gardeners, impatient to see the return of their stalwart, reliable perennials and avidly planning for their annual flower beds.