Typical of the Equinox – the weather doesn’t know what it wants to do.  A lot of the time, the ground is pretty much bare around the house, but it keeps snowing.  We’ve had several skiffs, and two bigger falls.  When the ground is open, the birds mostly seek food elsewhere.  When it snows, they flock to the feeder.  Juncos have very long feet.

But the stars of the performance are the redwing blackbirds.

There are now about 30 (still all male), and their testosterone level is climbing, so they fight!

I must have a sadistic streak, because I enjoy this!  Other birds are tumbling in on the warmer days. Flicker, savannah sparrow, crows (only ravens around in the winter) and hawks.  Robins and varied thrushes appeared a few days before they started to sing.

And in the trees was a ruffed grouse.  In winter sometimes I see spruce grouse, but the ruffed grouse arrive with the spring.

A few days ago, I thought I’d better check when the time change was going to be.  I found out that it had happened nearly two weeks before!  The battery in the watch I keep around, without really looking at it much, had died.  If I want to know the time, I have to switch on the computer.

The mountains play peek-a-boo with the clouds,

Despite this somewhat cooler weather, the snow is going.

Thaw patterns are happening.

The river is filling and turning brown.

On cloudy, moonless mornings, the bare ground around my house makes the world seem very dark.  Only the frozen pond and the slab of snow under the spruces across the wetland gleam faintly, like the Cheshire cat’s grin.

However, spring is definitely on its way.  On the sunniest banks, new leaves are poking through the winter debris. (This is jacob’s ladder.)

And the biggest prize of all, on the very warmest spot – Dandelions!

My very first wild salad!

Then, one morning, it was sparkling clear.  This has been a rarity for weeks.

If I wanted to walk easily, I would have to leave early while the frost made the snow hard.

The creek flowing into the pond was full.

Spring open water always looks so beautiful against the ice.

One group of willows always turns marvelously red.

The forest still has quite a bit of snow in it, and in places it is still a foot deep.

I want to put a trail through here, and thought I’d better flag it while I could still find my snowshoe tracks.  Along the route, there is a viewpoint.

I don’t know if you can see it, but my house is in the middle distance, almost completely hidden by pines.  If you look at the second aspen from the left, you will see 3 short, parallel branches near the bottom on its right hand side.  My house is half way between the third branch and the fourth.

The trail comes onto my neighbour’s road.  The ploughed areas are drying up pretty well.

Then I turn up onto the south bluffs.

A little further on, I can look down onto my other neighbours’ house.  (In the middle distance, close to the river.)  It is also for sale.

But that was the end of the really good weather.  Cloud built up by the end of the day, and this morning, it was raining.