Groundhog Day

Here in the US, it was Groundhog Day. Today Good Ole Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, foretelling an early spring. This came as no surprise to those of us living in the Northeastern US who have seen barely an inch of snow this winter. We enjoyed weather in the 50's into January.

Yesterday, I tried to explain to Einey (who was learning about Groundhog Day in school) that no matter if the groundhog saw his shadow, the official start of spring doesn't change. It still comes with the vernal equinox on March 20th.

Here is a shot of one of our groundhogs that lives in the woods behind the neighbor's house. He was rather cute, munching on the raspberry leaves and weeds, until he decided to infiltrate my garden last year and eat my squash plants. He's one of the wildlife we can tolerate though.