YES, SPRING IS HERE, in the South & ITS PARADE TIME

This is what I woke up to the other morning.
I have spring fever bad.  I have a lot of things to work on,  but what do I do - I went for a walk in my neighborhood.  I decided to take my camera so I could take a couple of pictures to send to my sister who lives in Wisconsin - to give her a break from winter.  Well a couple ended up being quite a few, but I want to share them anyway. I thought all the people up north might enjoy these too.

There is always certain clues that spring is here like blustery days. Nothing stirs me more than seeing an American flag blowing in the wind.

Another clue is to see the Red breasted Robins.

Or nests being built.

Or actually finding a nest with goose eggs in it.  There is nothing like seeing the circle of life to make you feel alive.

All of this is great and wonderful, but it is the flowers that really get to me.
Here are some of the flowers that caught my breath as I walked today.

Daffodils

Camilla's

Forsythia

Pansies

Jonquils

Hyacinths

Camillas

Camillas

Tulips

Lily's of the valley?  and Daffodils

Even the trees and bushes are wonderful.  Look at how purple this Tulip Magnolia tree is, while the other one is so whitish looking. 

Tulip Magnolia tree

Tulip Magnolia Tree

Azaleas

Here's some more trees that are spectacular.

Bradford Pear?

Peach blossoms

Not sure what this is.

or this

I even enjoyed looking at the weeds.

Clover?

Violets in the grass

Dandelions

 And a gardener after my own, someone who grows Dandelions!!  I have one just like that at my house.

Don't know what weed this is but its pretty anyway.

And finally for St Patrick's day some three leaf clover

Ah yes, Spring is definitely here.  Even my arch nemesis is coming out - Fire Ants - who would have ever thought something so small could topple me over like they do.

Yes Spring is definitely in the air -  It's no wonder my husband is complaining about me snoring in the middle of the night.  I'm just glad they have invented the allergy medicines that they have.  Claritin - my new best friend.

Yah, there's nothing like walking in the neighborhood and enjoying mother nature in its fullest.  When my kids were little, the one thing they had to do was go to the duck pond at the first chance we could get to break the ho-hums of winter.  I decide to go to the pond without them today.
Seeing ducks at the duck pond tells me that winter is over.

 One of the things that excited them so was to find eggs.  I thought it was too early but I was wrong. There were eggs to be found.  Here's another picture of the eggs in the picture above.

But  the thing that really, really makes me realize that winter is just about over is the annual migration of the port-a-lets to the duck pond.

And the setting up of tents.

And the setting up of barricades

The signs are in place

It all just leads to one thing:  Mardis Gras is here and 

                        IT'S PARADE TIME !!

The parade takes off on March 8.  If you haven't submitted anything yet for AW-32
Please get it in to me as soon as possible.