30 days till.....

 I have read that it is 30 days till spring. Smokey smacks  in anticipation. His playground  will be  ripe with new birds.

 30 days, 6 hours 10 minutes and some 30 seconds.....no , make that 9 minutes...

 Worms to rake out of the compost. Worms that wriggle and squiggle  back into the mud.

 Eagles flapping away on trees. Trees that almost died last summer in the heat.

 Make that 30 days 6 hours and 6 minutes.........not sure where all the seconds have got to. But they're there.

 There's still snow on Mt. Washington, but the sun stays long and low these days.

 The Passage still changes. In 30 days it will change again.

 The waves still holler and yelp in the wind.

 Heavens, now its 30 days 6 hours 6 minutes and 6 seconds to spring. Some sort of infernal  countdown this is.

 Till the fog flops over the mountains. Till the snow tries to melt.

 And Spencer stands  with his paws together for a full 10 minutes. A record.

 Hell won't freeze over, but we might. Still.Drip. Drip. Drip. Goes the rain.

 30 days 6 hours  4 minutes and 21 seconds. I think the eagles sit longer than that on their telephone poles.

They still fish in the estuary , bordered by pussy willows. Lots of them this year. Soft bunny paws.

 The estuary drains into the Passage.  Where Captain Vancouver  first landed on Quadra Island in 1792. He must have been so excited to finally stop rocking around in  HMCS Discovery. I wonder if he ever got seasick.....

 30 days 6 hours 0 minutes and 40 seconds till spring.

 Captain Vancouver figured out that he was  toodling along around an island. A big island.  Full of rain forests.He decided to stop.

 30 days 5 hours 56 minutes and a whole lot of seconds left. To clean up the garden. To prune trees.

 To wait for the mud to  dry up. The rain to cease. Well, at least a little. It never stops raining here.

 And in a month or so, will come the whales.  Killer whales. Feeding. Pods of them.

 It comes in 30 days 5 hours  50 minutes and 50 seconds......or it might come sooner.

 Get out the sparklers. Dig in the mud. Release some worms. Watch for whales. Count the minutes. It comes in 30 days..........5 days  42 minutes and 20 seconds...... at some point,  it will be ...............HERE. I wonder if Captain Vancouver liked spring.....