SIGNS............

 Okay, don't keel over. There are signs. I've seen them. Poking through the ground. You'd never guess
 what this is: Bleeding Heart ( 2-3 months early) . It just cannot wait. If we DO get a frost, it will be toast. I have seen years very much like this, where it is like spring, then a snow storm  shows up in March and kills things back. But this year, it all seems different.

 

We have not had a lot of precipitation. Even Mt. Washington is suffering, and has been closed due to lack of snow. It will be a long, hot summer if this keeps up. We see this mountain every day and can track it's snow pack...............right now it just looks like icing sugar on a huge bundt cake.

 Of course, another sign of spring is the fact the neighbourhood cats, like Smokey, are sitting on the fence again. Not wholly for  cosmetic purposes. They are bird hunting. With abandon, I must add,  these mild days. The birds hide in the grape vines, and make for excellent game (sad to say). What sun we ARE  having, the cats tend to bask in it all afternoon.

 Basking has its own sort of reward with the eagles down at the beach. They bask in the tops of tree branches. I like to think they are there for their photo op. But something tells me they are on a mission.

 The beach has been so calm lately, no storms, no wind, nothing to show it is winter on Vancouver Island. Discovery Passage has remained peaceful for a while now. Usually, in January there are such wild storms that the camera lens gets obliterated by the surf.  But there ARE eagles this year. Lots of them...

Happily watching from on high. From time to time they go fishing. Then sit on the large rocks near the ocean edge. Scaring the loons into giving up their perfect sunning spots.

 Such calm days. A sure sign that we may not get a real winter. And then if we do, it will be just a blip on the horizon. The ocean will foam at the mouth, the birds will scatter and we will get a day of something. Maybe rain. Maybe wind.  But for now , it's just waiting.

 

 Funny thing is, on the last day of Janurary, I was able to get into the garden and weed. Have NEVER been able to do that until April. The day was sunny, warm, almost too warm. The ground was soggy from the chill the night before, the worms were scuttling around in the wet earth. The compost needed digging out. Later, I'll do that, once I get a handle on the weeds. So many weeds. Even the roses are starting to leaf out from underneath the weeds.

That is a sure sign. Everything scraped  down to bare bones, or bare twigs. Like a canvas waiting  for stuff to pop. Colour to bleed out of the earth.And Cordelia, from the house on the hill, flirts her fluffiness in the late afternoon light. She preens in the sun. A sure sign of more days like this to come.