Of course, by posting this, I'm going to jinx it...

Today is the first day this winter that I ventured outside in only a t-shirt. In my books, that means spring is officially here! (Some years, spring doesn't arrive until June, but then again, I'm a wimp when it comes to the cold.)

Mind you, if one judges the season by the birds, spring is old news. The geese are back on the river, or more accurately, out at the Forestry Farm, and the sparrows are doing their best to outsing each other for the best nesting spots. I saw a pair of merlins this morning on my way to school doing mating spirals around each other, and the frumpy-looking pair of pigeons that sit outside my window and coo for hours at a time are building a nest under the neighbors eaves. As annoying as they are, I can't wait to see their hatchlings, since the male is a creamy white with bright purple bands, and the female a dusty grey.

And of course, with spring, comes spring cleaning. We managed to get the apartment into decent shape for our guests last week, but we still needed to do a little more just to get all of the winter grit out. Now that it's all done though, I'm quite amazed at how much bigger the apartment looks. I guess that's why we were able to fit almost twenty people in here, though I will admit that it was a tight fit at times. Now for the big challenge: Keeping it that way!