March 20th, 2011

Spring arrives today, March 20, in southern Ontario at 7:21 p.m.  Although the season will have officially begun, we can expect a few last wintery blasts before shorts and t-shirts replace the long-johns and wool socks in my dresser drawers.

The vernal, or spring, equinox is the date on which the sun is positioned directly over the equator giving equal parts daylight and darkness to the world.  In the southern hemisphere, today is the autumnal equinox.

Robins and red-winged blackbirds have returned in numbers, the vanguard of turkey vultures have floated northwards in search of non-frozen food, and all the other resident songsters are in full chorus staking their claim to various territories.  Chipmunks, groundhogs, raccoons,  opossums and skunks have all awoken and and are busily foraging to replace lost stores of fat and to feed young that have, or will soon be born in their dens.

There are snowdrops flowering in my neighbour’s garden, skunk cabbage is enticing beetles and early flies to enter it’s smelly spathe, and a whole host of other wildflowers will burst into bloom once the soil warms and the sun intensifies.

Enjoy, and although gardening and dinner on the deck are likely a few weeks off yet, winter is now behind us…