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By the time you are reading this column, I will have done a little celebratory dance. What am I celebrating, you ask?
I, like many of you, are celebrating the fact that we have turned our clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night. Sounds kind of funny to be happy to lose an hour of sleep, but it means so much more than that.
For those of us who find night driving more challenging as we age, that one more hour of daylight will continue to grow each day now through the summer months. It means we don't have to always grab the early-bird dinner so we're home by dark! Our shopping excursions are not dictated by the hour on the clock, and so on.
It means that our getting up early suggests we are following our inner human clock that craves the sunlight. Let's face it, the sun just makes us happier when it's shining in the window and when caressing the barren yard that will soon burst forward with shades of green.
There are signs of the spring season showing up daily. The robins are more plentiful now. Twigs and other materials are being carried to the favorite nesting sites of other creatures and birds.
There are twigs beginning to sprout inside that small space above our propane tank. Each year, a mother bird builds an amazing nest at that same tank location and we must wait until the eggs have hatched to refill the propane. Timing for both the bird and us is essential for survival.
Even the newspaper box near the mailboxes is fair game for nesting as evidenced by the materials now entering that familiar green tube. As for the mailboxes, I think I will take the advice of a mail carrier to place a dryer sheet in the box to keep wasps, bees and spiders from taking up residence inside. Mail carriers often face stings and bites from mailbox squatters.
The forsythia is beginning to show signs of life and brilliant yellow daffodils are blooming around our church property. All kinds of green things are sprouting up through the ground.
With all these signs of warmer things to come, don't be fooled. Mother Nature tends to be a bit fickle during March and April. March Madness means more than just basketball so don't put away the winter coat just yet.
And don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors this weekend. Have a sunny day!
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.