Spring?

Spring? Not yet. The usual loose talk about the coming first "official" day of spring is in the air (what office?), but that air's still pretty cold around here. The trees are bare and the grass a dormant brown. There's even a crust of ice still clinging to existence near the fence in the back yard.

But there are signs of the emerging season. The chance of subzero temps is now vanishingly small, and the increasing daylight is easy to perceive, since the equinox really is on its way. Also, after sunset Orion is in his "so long, folks, see you next winter" position in the southwestern sky.

Recently I saw a parcel of robins, or maybe that was a flight or fleet or dissimulation. (I wondered about the collective term for robins, but I couldn't find one at this site -- though there were the aforementioned terms for birds, besides the pedestrian "flock" and a few others.) About the robins I saw: they were actually bob-bob-bobbing along.

Today I noticed the first hint of croci emerging from the mud.

During the warmish spell last week, I saw a fly outside. The very first scout of the many insects to come. To anthropomorphize: He was wondering, Where is everyone?