In another natural phenomenon, the birch trees in our yard, especially the one I can see out my office window, burst their leaves open today. Just yesterday, they still looked like they were covered in a downy white fluff, but today they all have a coating of youthful green. The leaves are still small, but return of green there and in some of my lawn is invigorating.
One last bit of nature I noticed today--and I openly admit to burying the lead on this one--is my first sighting of a wolf out in the wild. The dogs were barking this morning, and I assumed that they were guarding our yard from the family of snowshoe hares who I saw in the yard when I first let the dogs out. I was surprised, then, to see the dogs barking towards the backyard and not in the direction of the bunnies. I saw some movement behind some of the trees, and first thought that one of the hares had made its way to the back, but then saw the beautiful wolf meandering its way along our back ridge.
It paused and watched the dogs as they barked at it, giving me a chance to appreciate what I was seeing. It was bigger than our dogs, but still smaller than I know wolves can get, making me think that it was probably a younger wolf. It looked healthy--probably due to a healthy diet of snowshoe hares. I was mesmerized until it started moving again. I went inside, hoping to get my phone (and thus camera) and Janelle, but it was gone by the time I got back.
I'm used to the sun's strange patterns and the blooming during this time of the year, but I did not ever expect to see a wolf on my property.