Spring has Sprung

I don't know about you, but every year, it seems to me like spring arrives virtually overnight. I wake up one morning and the trees are in bud, the flowers are in bloom, the grass is a brilliant emerald green.  Almost like the first overnight snowfall, it happens silently and presents you with a scenic wake-up call.

Spring is my favorite time of year. It's when everything returns from a long winter's nap, stretches and fills the world with color. It also feels, to me, like the time when I emerge from my own cocoon.

When I was young, I had an accident that happened right at the onset of spring which kept me in the house for a period of weeks. During my convalescence, the changeover from dull and gray and dead to vibrant and green and blooming had occurred, like a rebirth. That was the first time I "really" paid attention.  The transition is usually very subtle.

Now, I work in a seasonal job that takes over my life from February through the end of April (trumpet fanfare please, busy season is OVER), so the transition is just as miraculous for me now as it was when I was a kid.  For three solid months I have been sleepwalking through my life to meet deadlines, barely noticing the changes in the weather outside, and yet I've been snapping these pictures as Spring once again thrills me with its arrival.  The hyacinths in the garden, the magnolia tree in bloom, and the other picture (you're wondering what the heck that is?) was hail, but the significant thing about that picture was that after I snapped it to say, "hey, look at the hail," I noticed the lawn beyond the deck.  Brilliant. Emerald. Green.  Had I not snapped the picture, I wouldn't have noticed, but once I did, it was a stop and look moment.

Some people prefer the colors of Autumn.  Do you have a favorite season?