Spring, It’S Sprung! Numerous Telltale Signs Demonstrate To Skeptics That Season Has Changed
It came last night, as silently as a buttercup blossom opening to the sun.
Perhaps you didn’t notice, but it happened anyway, about the time David Letterman started his monologue.
Never mind that many country folks are still wearing Sorels through remnant snow.
Never mind that businessmen are clad in tweed.
Never mind that Matt Santangelo and other Gonzaga boys are still playing a winter game.
Want proof?
Display windows at the downtown Spokane Bon Marche feature silk daffodils. The racks inside the store hang with cotton pastels. Chocolate Easter bunnies entice shoppers.
Business is picking up at Olympic Boat Center and Two Wheel Transit, a Spokane bike shop. Fencing companies report increased business, a sure sign that gardeners are on the prowl and noticing winter damage.
In the fields near Colville, veterinarian Ed Kowitz reports, lambing season is almost over and the calves are coming fast.
Along a remote stretch of the Palouse River, canoeists spotted Western bluebirds on Sunday.
On the lowest slopes of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, mosses have turned bright green, says botanist Mark Mousseaux.
At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, salamanders are picking mates and Columbia ground squirrels have crawled from their dens, biologist Mike Rule reports.
Buttercups are blooming. That means grass widow will blossom soon, followed by biscuit root and bitterroot. Serviceberries will take their turn in May.
By then, even the biggest skeptics and most fanatical skiers will have to accept the truth: It’s spring.