April Spring- The Real Thing

Here it is April 2nd, beautiful warm and sunny, the quintessential spring day. :)  This has been an easy, gentle winter compared to the rest of the winters we have experienced both here in central Alberta and  in northern Manitoba (of course).  The weather was very mild, and the snowfalls were few and far between this winter. December, January and February felt more like early April most of the time. No wonder most of our snow has melted already! :)

Today I saw some certain signs of spring:
1) A male mallard duck was swimming around on one of the newly melted ponds at the end of our road.  The ducks are a few weeks early this year. The canada Geese have been here for several weeks, but they usually do show up long before the snow melts properly.  I wonder if that means an early spring or is this just a teaser before the next snowstorm hits?

2) I saw a huge flock of snow geese flying far above me at the shore of Buffalo lake today during my walk with the dogs, Spirit and River. There were 32 of them flying almost soundlessly, only the occasional honk alerted me to their presence, with their bright white bodies and their dark beating wings. They were flying out of the north (where else?) and flying directly south.

3) The pussywillows have sprouted in plenty of time for Easter. :)

4)The county had posted a fire ban on their web page on Facebook. They warned of the extreme dryness in the county. Yet no one has come to adjust our fire hazard status sign at the entrance to our community. The sign still indicates the fire hazard is "low".  No surprise really, since the county seldom changed the sign last year either.

In fact, I confess, one cold, snowy day in November with the snow 4 inches deep in the ditches, I got tired of seeing the fire sign at "Extreme"( say, what?!) so I pulled over to the side of the road, got my long snow brush out of the trunk, walked ankle deep into the snow below the sign, then slide (okay, 'whacked' is more accurate) the indicator down to 'Low".  And there it still sits....  Shall phone the county office tomorrow to ask if someone will come to change it or do they want me to do it. We never seem to get a straight answer to that anytime we have called in the past. They usually pass the buck and tell me to phone the fire hall. The fire hall isn't always manned, so I don't always catch anyone in there either. Good thing there isn't an emergency!

My flower bed next to the house on the south side has warmed up enough to sprout some eager tulips, one lone bearded iris and a brave oriental poppy thus far!  My long bed and angel bed in the middle of the yard is still blanketed under a thin layer of snow. And there are no crocuses popping out at the top of Picnic Hill yet. That is always a sure indicator to me that spring in the country has sprung!