Birds are Singing!

We awoke to very a very brief flash of sunlight this morning, and now we are having the all too familiar rain showers. Fortunately, it's still reasonably warm - 43 degrees - and the overnight low was 42. Most of or snow is gone this morning, and when I was outside a few minutes ago (recycling day with Jamie and Marie) I was suddenly aware of a robin singing loudly about something or other. I had been watching for robins to show up, but hadn't noticed any until I heard this one. That means I need to block the areas under my porch where I had a robin condo last year with five nests - one in each space between the floor joists on my porch. With lots of activity on my porch, that was not an ideal space for nesting, and some were abandoned, eggs intact. To avoid that this year, I'm planning on putting some sort of barricade in there - either temporary or permanent. I haven't figured out exactly what I'll do. But the robins will be building nests very soon, so I've got to got going on that project. Maybe I'll put out some dry lint for them to use lining their nests, too.

Yesterday as I was picking up broken branches at various spots on my lawn, I found daffodils were up 3-4 inches in several spots. They look healthy and I was happy to see signs of new life in my gardens. I will shovel away the snow that seems to have broken down part of my rhododendron - Susan Socks is going to trim that for me once it's fully out of the snow. I had hoped to propagate some of those cuttings, but now I may be able to rescue the broken portion and will try to get that to root, too. Spring is such a neat time of the year. I love that nature is waking up all around me. I'm anxious for peepers to begin singing in my pond, so I'll go out on my porch tonight to listen for them. It's been so cold and windy, I'm sure the poor frogs were not anxious to sing about anything. Maybe warmer nights will impress them!

Diane sent this photo to me this morning. She said there was a significant change in the ice overnight. The ice is definitely getting darker and now there is a wide strip of open water along the shoreline. We can expect the block to go through and stop the clock any time now - and I'll let you know as soon as that happens. It is exciting that the contest could be over this weekend. Stay tuned!

The day is getting brighter - could we possibly have a little sunshine? Time to get outside and "make hay while the sun shines!"