Ten on Tuesday

Today's ToT will be easy for me, and because I have an all-time favorite I'm going to do it in reverse order, Letterman style.

Ten Signs of Spring

10. Mud, mud, glorious mud! OK, I don't actually wallow in it, indeed I avoid stepping in it, but I do enjoy seeing it. The world is mud-luscious, and spring is crouched, its tail twitching.
    
9. Flood. It can be rain or snowmelt or both, but with the approach of spring inevitably comes the deluge. Most early springs aren't quite as soggy as this one, thank goodness.
   
8. The CVS Easter display. It goes up as soon as they can move all those tarty hearts out of there.
   
7. SPA and/or my birthday. They both come at the end of February, and I've always felt that if I can live with discontent until my birthday I'll soon be celebrating the spring. SPA gives a nice little lift just when winter seemed interminable.
   
6. Pussy willows. One day, there they are, their pearly promise standing out in the otherwise barren marsh; the next day they're green, and the day after that, it seems, they merge into the burgeoning leaves and are lost to sight for another year.
   
5. Kids. They shoot out of their houses bearing footballs and baseballs and rollerblades, courting the inevitable spring colds by wearing far too little for the actual temperature, but who can blame them?
   
4. Geese in flight. Honk! Honk! Winter, get out of our way!
   
3. Crocuses. Usually my first sight of them is out of the corner of my eye: hey, what's that among the leaves? Is it really purple? Holy pistils, Batman, it really is.
   
2. Red maples. Small flowers, great vigor. This year I will finally get a good picture of the females.
   
1. And my all-time favorite sign of spring is: the light, of course! I don't know if the return of the light counts as a sign or the cause of spring, and I don't care: I'm so thrilled finally to have twelve hours of daylight I can hardly think straight.

Happy spring, everyone!