Spring

For the first time since the accident, I'm back on the trails this morning. My ankle, finally stable enough to negotiate tree roots and rocks, the odd patch of mud and loose gravel. My limp is ever fainter, and if I really concentrate, if I don't have far to go or if I take a long enough walk to really get into a rhythm (my physical therapist's voice in my head, "J -- try not to limp!), I actually loose it all together now. I never imagined this this healing process (or this winter) would last so long.

It's the second half of the first half of April, and it doesn't look or feel like spring yet, although it is. The ducks are back, but seem to like the neighbour's pond better this year (I do, too, I should ask them how complicated it was to have it dredged; ours needs it desperately). At night there are crickets again, maybe even frogs, too. It's hard to distinguish, not quite warm enough to stay long enough to try. There are more stranded Christmas decorations out on people's porches than pots of pansies. And not one open bud on the trees yet, not even on the forsythia bushes. I've counted about a dozen or so clumps of snowdrops pushing through in the neighbours' yards and around the trails. In our own garden, just one crocus though. The daffodils seem to have multiplied again underground, but I'd guess it will be at least 10 days before there are blooms.

The grass is the worst -- still brown and clumped, not noticing it's been raked and seeded. Maybe, hopefully it is doing something below the surface, but from what the eye can see, it's only busy being dormant. At least the snow has finally melted, every last patch of it even the stray bits at the edge of the lawn. The ground is soft again and sweet smelling even. Yes, even if it doesn't look like it yet, there are small signs of spring is here.

Even if the temperature was still below freezing when I left the house, it felt go be out this morning. Good to see H. back in the yard over the weekend, too, digging and preparing the beds, redoing the wall behind the pool, preparing to put a few proper steps in to make it easier to get to the cottage. He says it will be finished, with a little outside help, in time for our first house guests of the season. We should have flowers and forsythia and maybe even a few trees blooming by then, too. We're impatient and ready, and it won't be long now.