Signs of Spring are everywhere. Between a few little cold snaps, I've spotted gophers, flies, motorcyclists, and the ultimate sign: our first robin!

Rabbits and streetsweepers

As I sit (on the deck...in the sunshine) rambling on, a street sweeper is taking his initial swipe at our gravel-strewn street. The family of wild rabbits that makes their home under the neighbors' deck is scampering wildly around the yard. And the neighbor's dog is going nuts over those same bunnies.

The mama skunk that has been prowling the hood (I tracked her for miles in the freshly fallen snow the other day) has happily claimed pretty much everyone's front porch in her mafia-like landgrab. Who's going to argue with her? She and I had an encounter on our walking path just the other day. There's only one way in and one way out of this particular stretch of green space. I was attempting to make my way out. She wanted in. I froze. She froze. And we both, wordlessly and simultaneously, gave each other a very wide berth.

Signs of spring...in the garage

Just about now we all start feeling a little Marie Kondo need to find some joy-through-purging, scrubbing, and expunging. I've gone through closets and cupboards and basement corners. How we accumulate so.much.stuff in such little time I do not know. But we do. And every year it's gotta' go.

The garage is always the last place to get any attention, right? In fact, it's the spot I purge everything out into! The floor is caked in everything from mud to salt to some reluctant-to-go ice. There are tires for multiple vehicles, bins full of goodness-knows-what, and a "work bench" where zero work occurs, and lots of work-ish bits and bobs build up.

Get that clunker out of the way

If maneuvering around a project car is making the garage clean-up crazy-making, consider donating? Many of us have tired old vehicles just taking up space in the garage, or on the driveway. We had good intentions to fix 'em, but is it worth it? We've hem'd and haw'd, weighing the cost of fixing against the value of the vehicle. If it's costing you more to keep it, it may be that its re-sale or recycle value would be more meaningful to your charity of choice than the sentimental value of the car to you?

Whatever the signs of spring in your back yard or garage, some warm sun and the beginnings of green and growing things are sure to give us all a boost in the month ahead. Here's to a successful clean up, and lots of time to enjoy the wake-up weeks of the world around us.