It has been a wonderful winter with a reasonably decent amount of snow, but all good things must eventually come to an end. Ground ivy is making its presence known. Pussywillows were open before Ash Wednesday but whereas some catkins remained closed through the first weeks of Lent, they are now all opened. The nighttime temperatures seldom did below 30F anymore, and days are filled with the sounds and sights of male red-winged blackbirds as they stake out their territories. Daffodills and tulips have sprouted, with the former showing 5" of leaves. Precipitation is now exclusively in liquid form; as rain is expected for the next 48 hours, any remaining trace of snow will be melted.