Nature decides when it’s really spring. She lets us know one bit of color at a time.

Today, weeping willow fronts tinge yellow as they begin to bud. Green daffodil leaves persist in pushing through the brown mulch on flower beds. Magnolia buds pulse a dusty sage green.

It will be some time – maybe weeks – before the daffodil blooms pop their yellow trumpets, before the magnolia tree is covered with pink and white teacup blossoms, before the willow tree weeps yellow pollen.

But everything will happen. When nature decides it’s really spring.