Spring is coming fast now

Yesterday it rained all day long, from the time I walked out to catch the bus (still loving my eVent raincoat from REI) until late in the afternoon. I saw these pretty little guys peeking up from the small garden behind the YMCA, and in the process of snapping this picture my camera was getting splattered, so I stopped after taking this one.

As I sat in front of my computer in the afternoon, alternately cursing and praising Pixelmator, I saw a few sun breaks. (BTW, the new header is my latest Pixelmator creation.) The weather said it would clear up on today, Tuesday. So you can imagine my surprise when I woke to... snow!

From my front porch, I saw the rays of the sun as it came up over the horizon, and indeed the sky had cleared. But during the night we received a couple of inches of snow, as well as temperatures below freezing. Even now (1:00pm), after the sun has been shining all day, it is still barely 40 degrees F. Where the sun hasn't reached the sidewalks and streets, it's still slippery and rather treacherous.

I was the first person to navigate the stairs this morning. You can see the first rays of the sun hitting the middle of the stairs, but they were pretty slick when I needed to go down them, so I held on tight to the railing. In the previous picture, notice where the cars are parked. After I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw some interesting tracks in the snow.

Those are raccoon tracks in between the cars and the shrubs, aren't they? Since they look like little hands, and all of them heading in one direction, I figured it might be mom and her family out looking for an early morning snack. However, I think raccoons are nocturnal, so perhaps these were made at night. Anybody know much about their habits? I've seen skunks and deer emerge from the blackberry brambles, but I am now convinced that raccoons live in there, too. I've never seen any.

Spring! It's coming fast now. Sunday is the beginning of 2012 Daylight Saving Time. This means I'll lose an hour of sleep Sunday night, heading to the bus at what was 6:30am the day before, but on Monday morning will be 7:30am. Spring ahead, fall back: that's how I remember it. In the fall I get to sleep an extra hour, and this coming Sunday night it will be taken back. Sort of.

The sun will set after 7:00pm on Sunday, though, which makes me feel pretty good. Those lovely purple flowers will be coming into bloom soon, and I'll try to get a picture of them. Many of my blogging buddies have been posting pictures of their flowers, and soon the Pacific Northwest springtime bounty will grace my blog, too.
:-)