Waiting for spring

Spring. I watch and I wait and look for every little sign. Suddenly the signs are clear. The start of the season has slipped by unnoticed once again. Not waiting for me, the party is already going full force even in cold weather.

"No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring, but he will presently discover some evidence that vegetation had awaked some days at least before." -- Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 17, 1857.