Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in Ode to the West Wind, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” For most of us this year, we can say with great assurance, YES!! However, this morning I was greeted by a rare beauty – an orange-breasted one at that. A robin giving that sense of encouragement and hope that winter is finally giving way to spring. What a delight! But just as quick as it arrived, it vanished. Perhaps it was wishful thinking or the fact that I hadn’t been awake all that long. The sun shining so brightly gave the prompting to go for a walk. What is more glorious than wearing a light jacket with no mitts or hat, or stepping in mucky mud or smelling the earthy scents of winter melting? The sound of a skein of geese overhead! All that honking has been missed since they left us for warmer weather months ago. Welcome back you gangly, feathered, noise-makers! Now I know I did not imagine the robin this morning. I am sure, beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt that spring is here! Look alive people of New Brunswick and (because I’m in a good mood) the rest of those encapsulated in the cold, white, fluffy stuff because, as Robin Willimas put it, “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'”
