Is it really . . . spring?

There’s a hillock of snow in the backyard, the trees remain bare, and most of our garden beds still wear the blanket of leaves that saw them through the winter. But the crocuses have been in bloom for a while now, the lilac bush beside the front steps sports tiny buds and the garlic that we planted last fall is coming up nicely in the big garden out back by the compost bins, with tidy rows of green shoots heralding the arrival of spring.

So it would seem that winter’s back has finally been broken, as they say, even here in Maine. With that in mind, I took the snow shovels off the front porch and the back deck earlier this week and stored them in the shed. Let’s hope I haven’t angered Mother Nature into slamming us with one last snow storm, to punish my presumption.