Spring is springing in this neck of the woods.
Robin Coyle, aka Peeping Tom.
The birds have a dance party going on in our backyard today. The robins (no, not me and my multiple personalities) are doing shots at the birdbath. Three are using the fountain as a Jacuzzi. A randy mourning dove is chasing some poor girl and he hasn’t picked up on her birdy language that she just isn’t interested. Our yard is like a bird speed-dating session with a lot of flirting, drinking, and carousing. Club Med at Spring Break doesn’t get more action than this.
The daffodil bulbs in the garden pushed tender shoots through the soil to check the weather. They liked what they found and decided to lift their frilly yellow petticoats over their heads. After last week’s frost, a few of the less hardy plants in the garden understand what George Costanza meant by “shrinkage.” But in today’s warm sun, they are raising their plant-y faces to the sky and singing, “I Will Survive.”
All ready for the Easter parade.
The trees are celebrating this glorious spring day by wearing their pink bonnets while bees hum a summer tune in their ear. I love this time of year where the days get longer, the nights get stronger than moonshine. Oh wait . . . I can’t use that. Those are the lyrics to “Ventura Highway.” But I do love the longer days and not looking at my watch at 5:30 to see if it is time for bed.
This all makes me a tad nervous though. It is only the end of February and Mr. Winter might just be on a cigarette break. But in the mean time, I think I shall go dig in the garden and look for worms. Hey, I’m a Robin. It is my job.
Spring was about two months late springing here. Usually arrives around January 15.
How can spring arrive in January? Even in California that seems early!
Once our rainy season (December 15 to January 15) ends, spring begins!
In Sacramento, we get rain through March-ish. Then the garden comes alive!
I love Seinfeld and spring almost equally. Both make life a lot of fun. What a fun picture you paint of the simple pleasures around the bird bath. 🙂 Marsha 🙂
I never tire of Seinfeld reruns. I bet I’ve seen all of the episodes. And, I never tire of watching the birds party in the backyard.I should have said something about them all singing drinking songs.
You can always go back and edit, but your post seems perfect to me as it is. You have a marvelous sense of presence. You are there enjoying what is available to us all if we would just notice. You took the time to put it into words, eloquently – no less. 🙂
What a kind thing for you to say, History Gal.
Robin, I tell it like I read it!! 🙂 Marsha 🙂
First official day of spring here today. Supposedly anyway. Still cold, but turning milder in the coming days. I hope winter chokes on that cigarette and lets spring through without a fight. 🙂
I have Mr. Winter bound and gagged in my attic. Don’t tell Mother Nature.
Just found you and “can’t get you outa my head” (watched Kylie on that utube clip!!!) Love your descriptions of your randy birds. Hot, wet and steamy over here, the home of Kylie… Not seen snow since 1990 when I visited UK
Not only is the song called “Can’t get you outta my head,” once you hear it, you can’t get it out of your head! I’ve been cursing The Laughing Housewife ever since she put the link here.
Hot and steamy in Australia? Isn’t your summer winding down?
Ooh, I won’t pass that last line on to Willy, my cartoon worm. 😉
Fab post. I am so excited at the prospect of spring. Yesterday afternoon I noticed that my neighbour’s snowdrops have woken up – so lovely. 🙂
Tell Willy not to worry. I consider him a friend, not a feast.
I love seeing the garden come to life and celebrating the warm weather.
What a lovely ode to Spring, Robin Coyle.
And ps… I got the shrinkage joke, it’s one of my favorite episodes 🙂
It was one of my favorite episodes too. Seinfeld was brilliant. We watch the reruns all the time and never tire of the humor.
Luckily the reruns go here, on Norwegian TV as well 😉
We’re knee-deep in sleet up here, and it’s so cold and damp I want to cry. Your pictures of birds and flowers are very welcome indeed. Thanks for posting something cheerful.
Hope I didn’t rub your nose in our nice weather here too much!
Not at all. It was beautiful, hopeful, and exactly what I needed!
That was really brutal of you Robin, posting this link on my when-will-winter-ever-end post.
I know, I know. I’m evil. Please forgive me.
Ugh, you’re making me jealous Robin-o. Here in NH we are enduring yet another snowstorm. On Sunday we were blessed with 8 inches of snow. The week before that, we got 30 inches in 24 hours.
Yes, it’s only the end of February and technically winter will last for another few weeks, but still. I am ready for some of those drunken, horny birds. Ahem. You know what I mean.
Wow! 30 inches of snow in 24 hours! It must be beautiful tho.
Yes, the birds here are quite randy. Their courtship dancing is mesmerizing. All that wooing and cooing makes them thirsty! They asked me to put out some Grey Goose and Wild Turkey.
You have spring fever! Ha! It’s cute. I think it’s nice that the birds are having a nice time at Coyle’s Pub. You must be a good hostess.
They come for the birdseed appetizers and the worms sauteed in butter and garlic.
And the suet cupcakes!
My personal favorite, but my doctor told me to cut out fats.
I have been lamenting the lack of snow around these parts, I must admit. I have a six-year-old! I wanna go sleddin’!
Did I detect some feet stomping?
Well, it’s not faaaaair!
Love your description of the birds in the backyard. Send some of that spring my way, will you? Lots of rain and cold here right now.
I’ll box up some spring and drop it in the mail to you today. I hope the daffodils travel okay.
Oh, thanks!
I can’t get the picture of you doing shots round the birdbath out of my head.
Darn! The video link won’t let me play it in my country. What is the video of? I’d love to show it to the other birds doing shots with me at the birdbath.
Try this one:
Ha! Perfect. Oh, and I have a white outfit just like hers. Same body too.
Not jealous. Not jealous at all 🙂
Hey, you are the one with the hot track suit.
😀 😀 😀
You’re looking forward to Spring and I’m looking forward to Autumn – ah…the beauty of living on the other side of the world! 😀 It’s so hot here at the moment I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West covered in a bucket of water! 😉
The whole opposite season thing always takes me by surprise. My daughter wants to be a snowboard instructor during our summer, your winter in Australia.
Great Wicked Witch visual. “I’m melting . . . “
I’m so jealous. As I was driving to work this morning in snow – again – I thought: “How nice it would be to see some color besides white and gray and brown.” So, thank you, Robin for the flowering tree. Alas, we’ll have to wait a couple more months, but it is always worth it.
It will happen soon enough for you too. Spring here took us a bit by surprise . . . cold, dreary, damp, and them boom! Sunshine!
It’s storming here as I write this. Rain and then snow. I can’t tell how nasty by looking out the window. You are giving me spring fever, Robin. Can’t wait for winter to pack up its bag of tricks and move on.
Sorry to hear about the storm your way. Stay warm, dry, and safe. Mr. Winter can be a curmudgeon!
Snowing here. Winter storm watches and warnings. 😦
Sorry to hear that. But, there is something magical about snow too! Stay warm.
For most of us in Michigan, the magical side of snow disappears the day after Christmas. By March, we’re all ready to move south.
Spring training is here for baseball, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂
Winter has a way of wearing out its welcome. Did you see the snow on Spring Training in Phoenix last week? That was something.
Azaleas are blooming – and bluebonnets not too far behind (although it won’t be a banner year for wild flowers due to the dry fall)
Love that first paragraph.
The sun is now rotating around to come in the breakfast windows in the morning and living room in the afternoon. So nice.
We may have sun all week ( even if cool) – must run outside to play while I can.
Happy spring into Spring!
Our camellias are busting out all over and the azaleas are patiently waiting their turn. I love seeing the garden come to life after being dormant all winter, even though it is still technically winter here. It is like they are saying, “Ooh, ooh, me next, me next!”
Happy playing outside! You wearing those cool turquoise boots?
Wil be shortly – it’s Houston Rodeo for a couple of weeks – won’t wear them all the time like I used to – now I’m trying to make them last!
I’m in SWFL so we’re pretty excited about it making it down to a high of 70 on Friday:-) Although my extended family in Michigan is expecting another huge winter storm tomorrow, and my sister in NC was on a two hour delay for school this morning due to ice on the roads!
Is SWFL Southwest Florida?
Last week we too had school start time delays due to ice on the roads and even snow days in some low-lying communities. I bet the East Coast and Mid-west laughs at us for canceling school because there is half an inch of snow on the roads.
The days are getting longer, but we haven’t had a good mild snap to really get things moving yet. Some of the buds are swelling on early blooming trees, and the bulbs are peeking up, but nothing’s near blooming yet. Nice weather can’t get here soon enough! Your photos are making me so jealous! 🙂
The East Coast has been walloped this year. I send you sunshine and moonbeams.
I love this early peak at spring. I’m smart enough to know we will get our comeuppance (love that word) in a week or two. Mother Nature likes to tease. She messes with my head every year, every season.
No spring here — we are getting a heck of a storm–first rain, then snow — don’t like this combo
I have a friend who loves the cold weather and curses the summers here. She is the happiest with a pot of soup on the stove, a fire in the fireplace, and a sweater on her teeth to keep them from chattering. She is also crazy.
Stay warm, safe, and dry!
I like the soup and fire part but not the chattering teeth part – our summers here are hot and humid — I love spring and fall
Me too. Fall is my favorite. Crisp mornings, warm days, cool nights. And pumpkin soup on the stove. Maybe some bread in the oven.
you paint a lovely picture — I can smell the soup and bread and feel the crispness in the air — the need for a jacket or sweater but no heavy coat and boats and mitts
I couldn’t help myself when you said daffodils I had to post the poem I used to have my students learn. 🙂
Daffadowndilly by A.A. Milne
She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
“Winter is dead.”
That is delightful! I thought I read all of Milne’s work, but the poem is new to me! Makes me all happy inside.
It’s even more fun when you add body gestures to it too although I have to remind myself no to do it in public 😉 🙂
I would love to see that! You should do a video and post it on your blog. It is sure to go viral.
Keep dreaming! 😉
We won’t see this kind of beauty for another 6 weeks or so. Maybe I’ll just hang out here on this particular blog post until then. I can pretend that this is the view out my window! *sigh*
If the weather turns sour here next week, watch for a cantankerous post from me about it.
Think about it this way. Six weeks ago it was New Year’s Eve. Doesn’t that seem like just the other day?
Your past 5 blog posts won’t let me “like” them on my phone! I have been reading though! This is a cute one 🙂 I bet I will be laying by the pool in my bathing suit when I’m home at the end of march. We should have a margarita party!
You are the second person to say that, but I had an email that said, “Paige Coyle liked your post!” So, your “like” came through.
Should I do a blog post about you hanging out by the pool when you are home in a few weeks? I could do pictures and everything. Never mind. I take it all back. No cutie patootie pictures of you in a bathing suit here.
Sir David Attenborough can retire at ease, knowing Robin Coyle is more than capable of taking up the mantle of “the face and voice of natural history programmes”, and “national treasure”… (Wiki) 😀
Is that why PBS has been calling all afternoon? And here all this time I thought they wanted me to donate. I better answer the phone next time they call!
heh-heh… you’ve gone all poetic on us 😀
Don’t tell anyone.
Even though it’s still pretty cold here, there’s a certain feel of spring in the air, like it’s trying to break through the cold. I love March/April time because there’s the promise of the whole summer ahead of us, even though summer is usually pretty disappointing over here, but at least we have some hope of nice days!
I too love the promise of what is to come in the early days of spring. It is like the first day of vacation. You know the whole week (or however long) stretches out in front of you. If I wanted to be all mushy, I would add, “stretches out in front of you like a languid lover,” but I won’t go that far. Let’s leave it at “Hip hip hooray! The sun is out!”
I was thinking the same this weekend, during my son’s birthday party at the park. Perfectly blue sky, gentle breeze, warm weather… And the birds have been enjoying the nice weather too. I love listening to the mourning doves cooing. I hope this lasts for a long time but summer is brutally hot here.
Here too . . . we have our share of brutally hot days in the summer. Thank goodness for the pool and air conditioning. I think that is why I celebrate the harbingers of spring so much. Lovely days of warm weather and soft breezes are a treasure.
“The robins (no, not me and my multiple personalities) are doing shots at the birdbath.’
Priceless, Robin! Have fun looking for worms.
You know what . . . ? I cracked myself up with that line. Given my name, I am not above bird jokes. And God only knows how many Batman and Robin jokes I’ve endured over the years. The worms were delicious. Sauteed them in butter and garlic, sprinkled them with parsley, and served them over toast points. Want to come over for dinner?
YUM!!! Well…considering that I’m a Natalie which I think doesn’t have any cool name things like Robin…. I will stick to my human food! But just the same your worms sound delicious….*tries not to make eye contact*
🙂
You made me laugh. I’ll fix you a nice plate of Natalie food. I believe the key ingredient is a gnat.
I forgot about that!!! I almost always go by Natalie for that reason. Worms and gnats. Well hey, might as well have dinner then!
“Robin Coyle, aka Peeping Tom.”
I love that!
I make the birds very nervous with my voyeuristic ways.
Sigh… I wish I was sitting in your backyard. More winter on the way here tomorrow.
I keep telling you . . . come on over!
sigh if only…
We had the trees blooming a few weeks ago! And then more cold. And more cold. And cold and rain today. I’m ready for spring!!!! I hope we get to see many more pink blossoms very soon–that tree is gorgeous!
Did you say you ran in 36 degree weather today? I say you deserve some sunshine.
No spring in my immediate future. Then again, I wouldn’t expect it now in Ohio. But I’m more than ready for it. Sigh.
You’ve had a doozy of a winter. You deserve a little sunshine. Come out for a visit.
Actually it hasn’t been too bad of a winter. But I’d still like a glimpse of Californ-I-A
In the Midwest, we’d be saying that those buds are going to get their lips nipped if things change. We have a school ski trip slated for mid-march (rescheduled from mid-Feb) to the Sugarbowl region of the Sierras. Hope there’s still snow.
The Sierras had a good amount of snow last week, but if this weather keeps up, I don’t know how long that will last. Our kids love Sugarbowl. Have you been before?
Yes, we love it! We usually put our son in ski school in the morning and then we all play together in the afternoon. I love to snowshoe, and we all enjoy the “back country” sledding.
We feel so lucky to have the Sierra in our backyard. I’m not s skier, but I love to look at the snow. In the summer, you can’t beat Tahoe.
Yes, you are lucky! We try to time the drive so it’s not horrific. We’ve been lucky so far, but we only go up a couple of times a season.
Living on the top of a mountain range always means that even when we are positive Winter’s well and truly over there is usually one last frigid blast in October to surprise us. Right now it feels like Winter instead the last week of Summer. We have a massive low over much of the state and it’s rainy, foggy and windy. Blaah. Maybe the sun will shine again next week.
That happens here too. Just when you think winter is over, bam, cold snap. I’m bracing myself for that. Here’s to sunshine coming your way!
It was sunny today but more rain is on the way for the weekend. Lucky I have nothing planned.
Dr. Freud would have a field day with you! By the way, I have about 30″ of snow on my front flower bed. So, the daff’s better keep their little petticoats where they belong for a few more weeks. I am jealous. Can you tell?
Dr. Freud has me on speed-dial.
30″ of snow? Oh my. When do you start to feel spring in your area?
Usually, we start to see melting by mid to late March. Ice-out at the cabin (farther North a ways) occurs around mid-April.
That is right around the corner. Hang tight.