I know most of us have been waiting for spring for a long time (and some of us have been lucky enough to have it already for a while), so I thought on this final day of May I would list my top 5 tidings that tell me that spring is here:
5. Mud season. Here in central New York it’s easy to tell the coming of spring because the snow melts and what used to be snow has turned into lakes in our yards. If you can avoid yards during this time of year, please do, because once the water stops being a lake and seeps into the ground, it’s just below the surface, waiting to suck you in. Your boots/shoes/other footwear become muddy and need to be left in boot trays when you come in.
4. Bird nests in the garage. I know when I have to duck my head to avoid the birds flying out of the garage that spring has come. They build their nests carefully in the eaves, and freak me out every time I go out there to get into my car, or when I pull back into the garage after time away, and I forget they’re there. They remind me pretty quickly with their furious flap of wings, and my increased heart rate.
3. Skunk roadkill. Trust your nose.
2. All the pretty flowers. I remember when I used to dance through fields full of wildflowers. Oh wait, that was in a movie I saw a while ago. Those types of things don’t happen in real life. Instead, we get the poor flowers that come out when it seems like the weather has turned, then wither and die when it gets freezing again, then peek their heads back out tentatively when it finally warms up for good, worried they will just be fooled again.
1. Rain. Rain. Rain. Along with the flowers come the rains. It seems like almost every day in spring comes with its own high chance of rain. Even the days when the chance of rain is low, it seems like the weather finds some way to foster upon us some precipitation. That of course also helps to extend mud season, so we can all be grateful.
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 
I remember all those things from when I lived in Michigan. It is not so extreme in Central California. But to me, Spring always smelled of baseball. Grass & horsehide (or artificial horsehide). I couldn’t wait to get to Tiger Stadium (The old one on Trumble) grab a bleacher seat for $0.50 and get a hot dog (I’m sure it was soy) for $1.00.
Ah, the smell of baseball. I live close to Cooperstown now, so it’s interesting to think about how it smells up there. Not quite what I remember about baseball games during my youth. As for soy dogs, I would be all over those!
Swallows nest in our garage. I have to cover my car.
No way to move the nest without doing damage?
There is more than one nest. We like having them; they literally eat tons of mosquitoes.
I never even thought about them as mosquito control birds. Or maybe mine don’t eat mosquitoes.
I had a blackbird nest in the bonnet of my car. I failed to realise this until I had to open up to check my oil! Believe it or not. the birds had hatched and fledged – somehow – in between trips out in the car. I was relieved that the next season they used a ledge in the garage.
That is hilarious, and nature’s way of saying we are just along for the ride.