Searching for signs of spring

He who hopes for spring with upturned eye never sees so small a thing as Draba. He who despairs of spring with downcast eye steps on it, unknowing. He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance.” 
~ Aldo Leopold

Deer appear at dusk

The ice has melted and water runs from Butterfly pond
down to the lake again

The purple martin houses have been reinstalled and
a neighbor burns brush gathered from native planting beds in the distance.

The Chubby Seagull, our neighborhood ice cream shop,
has opened for the season, so we stop for whitecaps to celebrate
along with a doggy dish topped with a dog biscuit
for our favorite Aussie.

We head home as the sun sets over our house in the distance...