The weird weather is continuing but at least the night lows are only grazing the freezing mark now. The daffodils and a few crocuses are blooming. It was a welcome sign that the first bright colors of spring are proudly aloft in the garden.

The tulip magnolia started blooming this weekend, its pink and white blooms slowly opening in the milder air. The skies have lost their crystalline winter hardness, buffed by early fogs into a gentler glow. The sun is also finally starting to brighten the pre-breakfast hours instead of dragging over the horizon well after we humans rise to start the day.

I spotted one spinach seedling up yesterday while I was out raking some fallen leaves. I took advantage of a break in the cold, rainy weather to clean up around the garden a bit, getting ready to start early spring planting. In this climate zone, it is really late winter planting if one goes by the official declaration of spring by the sun's timing. I'll be getting a later start than last year, but we had no early break before the return of cold weather as we did then. It stayed cold and wet without that teased promise of an early spring this year.

The cats are finally getting their spring exercise underway. They've turned into fat little butterballs from staying in so much during the worst of the cold weather. Usually they would brave the cold to go out more, but wet cold isn't to their liking even though they are more rain tolerant than most cats. They're excited over the early mating rituals of the squirrels, watching for a careless suitor or enraged rival coming too close to their claws to escape back up the trees.

The squirrels are announcing their amorous intentions with raspy chases spiraling around the tree trunks. It is amazing how much noise they make in hot pursuit of another squirrel as their claws rake along the bark. The cats trot out with ears on high alert, zeroing in on their furry prey with tense anticipation.

The birds are also making their appearance in the garden. A pair of cardinals showed up yesterday, perhaps considering making a nest in the evergreen trees again. A mockingbird also swooped in for a look before rushing off to escape Rascal's keen interest. It is still early for them to pair off and start their aerial campaigns against the cats to protect their nests, though.

The crafting is still proceeding along with another sweater made and another one started. I keep promising myself to haul out the sewing machine and work on those projects, and keep finding other things to do. It is just easier to pick up the knitting than to haul out the sewing stuff.

I'm not snapping back from that pacemaker operation very well, and I'm still reading a lot when I have to stop for a while. I had to go through the organizer list and move all the spring planting reminders to March 1, since they were clogging the list so badly that I was having trouble finding the daily items backing up. Now they lie naked before me, stripped of their hiding places and announcing that I was a month behind on some things. I discovered that I let this blog entry slip by an extra week after I had resolved quite firmly to write one a week no matter what.

I hit the big 50 last month with a considerable thump. The pacemaker went in one week before my birthday, quite an expensive present indeed. The gift of life does not come cheaply these days, and it doesn't come with a guarantee of youthful vigor.

It seems like the days hardly start before evening darkens the windows. Now I understand why older people complain about time speeding by so quickly. Inside, I don't feel old at all. I bump my nose against my mortality when I try to get the outside moving. The wisps of spring weather are beckoning me out to the garden again, though, just as they are luring new green shoots from the earth.