happy spring!

Today is the first day of spring.

Well, YAY for that!

Like the rest of you (except for Hannah, one of my students who claims she will miss winter), I have been aching for spring after an especially long winter.

And there are signs of it... sunshine that makes it warm enough to shed that winter coat (and even down to a t-shirt if you're sitting in a sheltered spot), the squeaks of bikes raised out of storage, our first trip to the park... even green things are pushing up out of our gardens.

Speaking of gardens, I let some carrots 'overwinter' in the garden, and was surprised that most of them are still very edible after all these months! We actually had so many carrots crowded together (because I have a hard time thinning seeds -- the thought of ending a seedling's new life gets me every time) that we couldn't eat them all before the snow came. However, some of them are pretty interesting specimens. Exhibit A: this three-legged carrot. Perfectly normal. Just a couple extra limbs is all. (T'was yummy in the curried carrot soup we had tonight.)




We actually ventured outside for a picnic lunch once this week.



Another sign of spring: the return of the tundra swans. Every spring, thousands of these beautiful birds return to the Old Thedford Bog south of Grand Bend on their 6000 km migration to the arctic. We took along binoculars to have a good look.




I couldn't capture any great photos of the swans, but these photos will give you an idea of their beauty...
























Mom and Dave were visiting this week, and I got a few neat shots of them as well.




Eliana spent some time trying to figure out what was up with that moustache. Does it come off?


So... happy spring! Hope you enjoy these moments to the fullest.