Hopefull spring

Snow, mud and ice
Disappearing at last
As the sun warm us all

On this last day of winter, I took a walk into the park. It was a little colder than the previous day, as if the winter wanted to remind us that it was still there… However, the hopeful signs of the coming spring could be seen everywhere: in the tiny shoots of daffodils (which will flower at last this year, I expect) or in the birds that were starting to populate the bare branches of the trees and fill the air with their songs. Today, I have seen a female cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), a downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) and two crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos). 

Daffodils

Daffodils

Sun warms the Frederic-Back park

At the same time, the coming of spring brings hope of more  than sunnier and warmer days. The coronavirus pandemic has reached its first anniversary and it has now been a year also since we started confinement and mitigation measures. People are exhausted and fed up with the distanciation and the mask wearing. Unfortunately, the threat of more potent virus variants forces us to persist in our efforts. But warmer temperature will allow for more outdoor activities which will in its turn alleviate our mental stress and the increasing vaccination pace will soon help everyone to better defend against the virus and create enough immunity to starve its spread and mutation.

I have never seen a spring burdened with so much hope…