Has Spring Finally Sprung?

I woke up early (for me) this morning and went for a long walk.  If you can’t fly fish, long walks are a good time for contemplation, de-stressing, and getting your thoughts together. It’s not quite as enjoyable (to me) as spending some hours alone on the river but a long walk can still be a pleasant experience.

And what can make it even more pleasant than sunshine, milder temperatures after a long harsh winter, and the prospects of temperatures above freezing forecast for the next week?

In my part of the world, it has been a long harsh winter – although in the past week we have had some days where the mercury hit above the freezing point as well as some sunshine.  I think I can count on one hand the number of days of full sunshine between the first week of December and mid March.  This morning, before I went out for my walk, I noted that the weather predictors have forecasted  above freezing temperatures for the next five days, except for one where it will dip below freezing at night.

This is good. Although we’ve had a significant amount of snow melt, I still have six inches to a foot in some places covering my front yard.  My front yard is on the north side of the house – I’m envious of those who’s front is on the south, and who have much less snow than I do.

The signs of spring are very encouraging – right now I am peeking out my window and watching a chipmunk scrounging in the bird seeds I recently put out – for birds of course.  I’ve also seen small flocks of Canada Geese flying north. Daylight hours are increasing and I’m looking forward to being on the river at 9:30PM some spring and early summer evenings!

Time to get at my tying bench! I promised myself I would do more tying this winter – but didn’t do so.  I failed at keeping a lot of promises I made to myself – but plenty of time to contemplate all that when the water is running against my waders.