What is your favorite harbinger of spring?

[BurtWorm]

For me, growing up in Maine, it was the sound of spring peepers whirring in the evening in late April.

Here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, my favorite harbinger of spring is the aroma of apple blossoms wafting up from Riverside Park.

[CaptainClark23]

1. Bryant Park, NYC, at lunchtime

'nuff said.

[BurtWorm]

2. Gotcha,

;)

[XNASA]

3. Listeing to Cub's Spring Training games on the radio.

Or seeing lines of people standing outside of Dairy Queen, which is closed from Nov thru mid-March.

[hippiechick]

4. Squishy mud between my toes ...

Cool, crisp air off Lake Michigan on a sunny afternoon ...
Little flower buds trying to peek up thru the old dead soil ...


:hippie:

[DrBB]

5. My lovely wife's birthday

Her's is on March 20--1st day of spring, or nearly, depending on the year.

[NuckinFutz]

6. It's the geese

I love to see the huge flocks flying northward.

I also enjoy the reappearance of the bright mountain bluebirds.

[grannylib]

7. Seeing little green shoots of plants when I turn over the dead leaves

in the garden; I just love watching all the little plants grow. They are like my babies...I love seeing their progress day by day.

[stevedeshazer]

8. Skunk cabbage

It's a Northwest thing. It bloomed two weeks early this year. It's going to be a comparatively hot summer here.



edited for spelling

[BOSSHOG]

9. In South Mississippi

The blooms of a redbud tree and the smell of sweet olive. The love dance of cardinals around the Magnolia. The drunken catterwalling of mocking birds chowing down on holly tree nectar. Hot spicy crawfish and ice cold beer consumed on the bayou after a St Patty's Day Parade. And the ultimate; azalea blooms (any day now).

[scarlet_owl]

10. Going to the pond with the schoolkids

and catching fairy shrimp. I like to see what new animals we find in there as the weeks progress.

[radwriter0555]

11. Los Angeles. First week of March, the night blooming jasmine goes

INSANE.

The fragrance is SO toxic and heady, I have to close my french doors at night; it's TOO fragrant!!!

[catzies]

44. I'm a little north of you. My nightblooming jasmine waits til July

Which is fine because it blooms til about October. I think the Ventura County weather has a lot to do with it, because our summer means fog. Looking out the window, it looks like summer right now.

The pink jasmine is going nuts right now, and is soon to be followed by the star (aka confederate) jasmine.

Yes, I have 3 different jasmines, all planted in my backyard under my bedroom window, and they all bloom in different seasons so I can smell jasmine almost all year!

[ZenLefty]

12. People wear less clothes.

Me included. :D

[SiobhanClancy]

13. Pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training...

also like robins and cardinals:)

[damnraddem]

14. Demonstrators in the streets ...

protesting Dubya's latest outrage.

[BurtWorm]

17. There was a spectacular sign of that last spring in NYC.

On March 22, as I recall. A beautiful day to protest the start of the war.

[supernova]

15. Lime green leaf buds beginning to appear

on the trees. I love that color! You only see it for a couple of weeks every year in the spring.

The return of songbirds. Cherryblossoms. Daffodils. They show up virtually before anything else. :D

[ihaveaquestion]

16. In Central Florida, it's the smell of orange blossoms.

[bif]

18. In Michigan, when it hits 40 degrees, everyone takes their tops off

On convertibles that is.

[jpak]

19. When I was growing up in Maine

they were:

pussy willows

spring peepers

woodcock doing their mating flights in the hay field

the smell of the earth in the warm sun after the snow melted away

and wading through snow drifts to go trout fishing in the brook behind the house on opening day....

It ain't the same here in FL...

[SiobhanClancy]

20. I know...I grew up in Maine,too

and I lived 12 years in the Keys. I missed the seasons so much,I had to come back....to New England,anyway. I haven't made it out of Massachusetts yet:)

[jpak]

32. I forgot tappin' trees and sugarin' off

We made gallons of maple syrup each spring from the trees in the yard.

After my Mom kicked my Dad's stovetop operation outside (something about a houseful of burned maple syrup smoke) we'd collect the sap all week in big plastic garbage cans, then spend the weekend boiling it down over an open fire (and drinking more than a few six packs of beer).

Our big 'ol Maine Coon Cat would spend all night outside with us snugggled up on one of our laps.

And smelting in the local brooks too. A good excuse to get drunk, sometimes we'd even catch some.

Fried smelts for breakfast - mmmmmm!

And Fiddleheads! Jeesh, how could I forget!

My Dad had a "secret" patch up the road and would bring home a bushel or two each spring. We'd blanch and freeze a bunch and eat them on special occasions.

damn I want to go home...

:)

[BurtWorm]

34. Spring is very, very precious up in Maine, isn't it?

I have a lot of similar memories. We didn't tap our maples more than a couple of years, but we got some mighty sweet syrup out of them! Ayuh!

[blindpig]

21. peep, peep, peep, peep..................................................

they're calling here, as are the upland chorus frogs and a few confused american toads and gray treefrogs. Gods yes! Spring at last!The critters are a callin' me down to the low places.
Pity you live in The City, perhaps there are some peepers in Central Park.

[BurtWorm]

26. Yeah, there are peepers in Central Park, but they're not frogs.

;)

[Mrs. Venation]

22. In Southern Maryland

It's the crocuses I planted last fall that are now blooming, and the tulips that are about 3 inches tall, and the irises that have come up. I love flowers!

[pagerbear]

23. Shirtless Chelsea boys!

Woof!

[Jack_Dawson]

24. Eww

I think I'd prefer "birds chirping"...

[Westegg]

25. When you can smell the dogshit again in Union Square.

[BurtWorm]

27. That's definitely a sign. Not one of my favorites, though...

;)

[indigo32]

28. I heard a ton of birds

as I left for work today.

[meow mix]

29. wysteria and jacoranda blooms

im pretty sure i spelled none of that right.. but thats what we have a lot of around here.... and its super-nice!! =)

[GOPisEvil]

30. Bluebonnets and other wildflowers!

Spring in Texas is gorgeous! :bounce:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

31. Crocuses and daffodils

and robins...but in Pittsburgh we're expecting up to 6" of snow overnight and tomorrow. I HAVE HAD IT WITH SNOW!!!! :grr:

[fudge stripe cookays]

42. This is EXACTLY what I think of when I think of spring in Texas!

Add...Grape hyacinths, pink tulips, and sitting outside on weekends for brekky at Cafe Brazil or Dream Cafe. And wonderful balmy Saturdays antiquing in McKinney.

[m-jean03]

52. Lilacs are my favorite

You sensitive man, you. :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

53. And Bradford pear trees blossoming, all in white!

[northzax]

33. legs

nuff said.

[Cleita]

35. For me it's the Redtailed Hawks doing their mating dance in midair,

the Peregrine falcons up on the electric poles doing the same and the Monarch butterflies mating in midflight. Darn, my backyard is a regular brothel with Mother Nature's creatures celebrating the rites of spring.

[Bluzmann57]

36. Baseball games on the radio!

Especially Cub games. Watching the trees bud is good too.

[mac56]

41. That's mine too.

Twins games, of course, are first choice.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

37. I heard the first peepers yesterday...

Music to my soul!



from this site:
http://www.wpconline.org/dailyphotos/wpcdaily-321.asp

[Westegg]

38. For me, it's Wendy's triple-double with cheese...

Oh. Wait. I thought you said hamburger...

Nevermind.

[neverborn]

39. Allergies!

I hate spring :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

40. Flowers! Little bulb shoots poking up through the muck ... also

the gardening displays in the local stores. I love buying my seeds early and spending a few weeks designing the garden I want to plant them in. :)

[cmf]

43. Daffodils

And asparagus in the market. Yum!

[Mass_Liberal]

45. everything blooms!

And then I get hayfever. Shit

[TXlib]

46. kick

[VOX]

47. More solar hang-time around 6:00 p.m.

I leave the office around that time, and I can almost -- almost -- drive home without the headlights now.

When I can, I know that spring has arrived!

[geniph]

48. The first time I hear treefrogs at night

I usually hear them somewhere around the end of February. Heard them last week for the first time this year.

[Padraig18]

49. The crocus flowers in bloom and the rebuds budding out...

Two sure signs of spring in central Illinois. :)

[proud patriot]

50. Every little thing ...The sounds the smells ..

I love this time of year

[m-jean03]

51. Hey man, give credit where credit's due!

This long lovely thread should have belonged to ME!! I said it first! :bounce:

And by the way, you're ALL dingbats now. ;-)

Lilacs are my favorite harbinger of spring.