SPRING! SPRING? SPRING!

I think we humans like to arrange things, to categorize them, to measure and regulate them, and so when our planet reaches a certain point relative to other celestial bodies spinning around in the universe, we give a name to that day, the First Day of Spring, and for some reason I think a part of us believes that on that day, the world is supposed to suddenly begin to behave in a certain way. The weather should suddenly be mild and pleasant, and things should start blooming, and leaves should come out on the trees, and it should just STOP being winter (although, I almost think that spring is the only season we really want to change like that. We don't seem to mind the others being gradual. Or maybe it's just me). That's not what happens, of course, and yet, the weather can and did make a sudden turn this week. We went from cold and (a little) snowy to suddenly "spring-like" weather from one day to the next. It did not, however, happen on the day of the vernal equinox, the first day of spring, even though our planet did reach that relative point in the universe one day earlier this week. It waited a couple of days. And it took a couple of days for this to happen:

 The crocus finally fully bloomed! Huzzah! I say THE crocus, because though there are others sprouting in the backyard, none of them are even close to blooming. Now it feels like spring. Sort of.

 Maple tree gearing up to bloom soon...

The thing that made today feel most like spring is...

 Sap.

 

 Lots of sap. That first tree is a cedar, this one I don't know, and the black birches are dripping sap all over the place (I don't know why they do it, but they do it every spring). The ants are definitely loving it.

 It's dripping out of the hole on this tree. This tree has quite a few woodpecker holes, and they are all full of sap and surrounded by ants.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Beetle. I couldn't find it in my books.

 There were a lot of ants around today, mostly on the sappy trees, but elsewhere, too.

And A LOT of flies. Multiple species. Everywhere:

 

 And a couple of birch catkin bugs. I haven't seen any of those lately, since it turned cold, but with our recent warm-up of the last two days, I guess they have come out again.

 

 A chrysalis on the side of the house.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Jumping spider on the side of the house

 It's hard to tell, but it looks like it has caught something as prey, and almost looks like maybe it's another spider that it is eating.