Yesterday a hummingbird hovered outside my window briefly and then zoomed off. I have noticed more bird activity from bush to bush and limb to limb. I saw my first Stellar's Jay today. Heard one last week. Heard my first White Crown Sparrow last week, their familiar song: Hip-hip-hooray-spring-is-here-again! that will be with us all summer long and into autumn.

The trees renewal is staggered. Some non-yielding fruit trees have been in bloom for weeks. Many other trees are still undressed, not even a nascent bud. Tulip trees are blossoming from their sunny side first to their shade side. Dogwoods' lime green blossoms will be white by next week.

Later on toward June, Douglas Firs will extend their needles by an inch or two or three. The new needlles will be lighter green and soft, like new born babies are soft.

Shopping carts are filled with card board boxes of starts, for flowering, borders and ground cover. Sacks of fertilizer and sod are being loaded into trunks and hatchbacks. Yes the humans are coming out again too.

Insects, a few I have seen. Rhodies princely blooms unfold this time of year. Soon loud shades of spring and summer flowers: petunias, marigolds, impatiens, lobelia, ranunculas and cosmos bloom in a symphony of color.

Aaahh, how long we have waited, the cold we have endured, the wet, the damp, the dark. Spring is here at last, breaking the silence, slowly bird by bird, bloom by bloom until the earth is alive...and we are too.