Peepers

Seems like there's a day in every season that carries a hint of the season to come.  August always includes a morning that smells like fall.  We always get a hot day in April or May that feels like summer.  This morning, when I walked out to get the paper at 5:30, I heard the peepers singing - little frogs that don't seem to mind the cold.  To me, the peepers mean spring - even when it's cold and dark in the morning.

We usually get a brief "false" spring in January or February - a stretch of several days or weeks when the sun shines, the grass grows, and the spring bulbs are fooled into sprouting.  I know we'll have more winter, but these days are a welcome break from the cold, foggy and wet weather we've been having.

As I get older, the years seem to spin by faster and faster.  We'll start lambing in 5 weeks.  Irrigation season will start 3 months from today.  In 94 days, I'll be 44 years old.  In 100 days or so, we'll be shearing the sheep.  In eight and a half months, we'll turn the rams in with the ewes again.

I like to think of the calendar like a circle.  New Year's Day is the top of the circle, and we've now started down the arc towards spring.  Enjoy these beautiful days!