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I have nothing to say that isn't whiny, so let's just get to the beautiful stuff, okay?

Springishness:

 Flowers! Just kidding. These are dead flowers from last summer. But they look pretty, and they're all I have!

 Well, I have buds.

Lots of them.

And I know that a lot of the trees (if not all of them, I don't know) actually form their buds in the fall, so technically these are not signs of spring, but I am taking what I can get.

Now is perhaps a good time to point out something that I mentioned last summer, that bears mentioning again: one way to observe the changing of the seasons in my pictures is by the color of the backgrounds. Because of the way the macro lens works, with the objects in the foreground in focus but the objects in the background blurred to almost complete obscurity, the backgrounds of the pictures tend to just be blotches of color. The color of the background changes through the seasons. Right now they are mostly white, because the background is snow. Later they will be grey or brown, then greens, beginning with light greens, and becoming deeper (and maybe pinks), then yellows and oranges, and then back to brown and grey. So, be on the lookout for background color changes as we go through the seasons (I didn't start my blog last year until late April, so definitely didn't have the snow white backgrounds).

By this time last year, this patch of daffodils was in bloom. (For some reason the daffodils in the backyard bloom way before the ones in the front).

I wasn't going to bother going outside to look for bugs today, even though the temperature finally crept into the 40s, but I saw a couple of bugs fly past the window, so I figured it would be worthwhile to go out. I saw quite a few bugs flying around outside, but I wasn't able to get pictures of any of those. I did find this, though...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Gnat. Sitting on the stem of the dead flowers up above.

 Normally I am not particularly fond of gnats, because most of my encounters with them involve gnats trying to fly in my eyes or up my nose while I am trying to mow the lawn, but I was happy to see this one.

The crickets are still holed up under the board:

 The Cricket, perpetually dewy.

The New Cricket. It is much more active than the original cricket. And I think it spent the winter burrowed under somw moss under the board. I don't know what those white things are that are on its back.

A lethargic looper:

 Somethings biding their time until spring...

Something so small you probably can't even see it.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Another one of those tiny things you probably can't see is right next to this spider.

This spider was hanging out on the back storm door until I came along and it decided to hide.