This Time Last Year

 On our walk around the neighbourhood yesterday, I spotted several signs of spring - two clumps of yellow crocuses just opening their sleepy heads, a half dozen dandelions decorating the boulevard, dozens of robins singing as they flew from treetop to treetop, one small daisy standing amid the grass by the sidewalk, and countless new shoots poking up through the cold dirt.  

My intention was to go back and photograph them today for a blog post, but a bitterly cold wind and a forecast of snow and a still-sore back led to a chance of plans.  And a week filled with appointments and other commitments has meant little time for photography.  And then it hit me - I hardly posted anything last year yet I had taken photos with good intentions to do so.  And so I went back to this day last year and sure enough - there were the spring flowers, and the birds, and a even a few beach shots.  

So....in the interest of giving you something to read with your morning coffee, here's what we saw on our neighbourhood walk this time last year:

Apparently, we also walked down to the community park and along the beach that day too, for the file also showed gardeners working on the beds in the aboretum, crows clustered on a tree, plovers fishing along the shore and.....a happy Maggie on the sand.  

It couldn't have been as cold then as it is today, for I also photographed a woman walking barefoot along the water's edge - though her very pink feet suggest the water was chilly for sure.

And apparently this gull had chilly feet too (and from the out-of-focus photo, my hands were probably cold too):

Spring was a little further along last year, but we will soon catch up, I hope.  The forecasted snow for today did not materialize (yet!), and  the crocuses and dandelions and robins and daisy and countless new shoots are harbingers of that wonderful reawakening of nature.  If my back and the weather cooperate, I'll be out there capturing it with the camera.