Yes, It IS Spring
I smelled spring the other evening. It happens once each year and lets me know that even if we get another snow or some cold weather, the change has begun. At first I wondered what it was that made me so sure that it was spring. The temperature was no warmer than many other evenings this wimpy winter. It was around 35 degrees or so. It wasn’t windy, but something was different. I could smell it.

No, this is still Minnesota so I wasn’t smelling flowers or tree buds. The humidity was higher than it had been, but it wasn’t the dampness. Then it struck me that I was smelling unfrozen ground. Newly thawed soil. You can’t have life grow in frozen earth, unless it’s snow mold. This wasn’t mold. (Well, some of it was.) This was the earth waking up. This was the ground renewing as ice crystals in the soil percolated up and down, preparing the land for what is about to happen.

Life. Again. Wow!

P.S. And now tonight and the next couple days the other sure sign of spring around here: Thunderstorms are in the forecast!