Spring finally arrived today. Every morning for the past week days now I’ve been expecting it, checking the sky for the sign.  But it wasn’t spring yet.  Not yet.  The trees bloomed and then the blooms fell off and now they’re getting their summer leaves.  I have shade now in my front lawn again.  But it wasn’t spring yet.  The male goldfinches who come to my thistle feeders all have their bright yellow feathers now.  Every morning I wake up to the singing of robins.  But it wasn’t spring yet.  The grass is growing…already I’ve had to mow once.  Most days I can sit out on my front porch in shirt sleeves.  But it wasn’t spring yet.  Not until I saw the sign.  I saw it today.  The swallows are back. 

When I came in to work this morning I heard their busy raspy chatter as soon as I rounded the corner by the office and looked up, saw the first wave of returnees, darting here and there, shooting in and out of our triple deck concrete garage like little arrows.  Busily sprucing up their summer quarters now I suppose, after their being closed for the winter.  Every fall, in a final act of defiance, the sparrows try to pick apart the swallow’s nests once they’ve gone for the winter, and every spring the swallows just repair the damage and chase the sparrows back out again.

So spring has arrived finally.  I know, I know…officially spring arrived here in the northern hemisphere a few weeks ago.  But Officially it arrived here in Baltimore today.