Signs of Spring

Each year since purchasing the house in Tampa, I’ve had spring announced by a tapping on the sliding glass door at the dining room. Several weeks ago, just as has happened every year previous, I’ll be sitting in the office and start hearing?an unusual tapping. I always forget what it is.

When I finally go investigate, there’s a beautiful female cardinal pecking on the glass. All I can figure is that she sees her reflection and thinks it is another bird. She comes back a couple of times a day for a week or so. I’ve come to think of this as my sign that Spring has come to Tampa.

Spring comes later the further north one goes, and I’ve been up in North Carolina most of this week helping my mother in her recovery from knee replacement surgery. It’s definitely getting more green up this way, and the azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom, even though cold weather the week before Easter Sunday got to some of them. The picture here is of some dogwoods in a yard near Mom’s house. She also has dogwoods.

I drove up Tuesday. It had been raining in Tampa Monday and Tuesday. The cool rain made it here Wednesday when I was taking this picture. I worked from here, and helped Mom around the house. She went out for the first time today. We went to Shelby to get her a new tag, and ate lunch over there. It wore her out some, but she’s doing good, and enjoyed getting out.