Here in the Okanagan Valley, the signs of spring are everywhere.

No, really, I mean it!  Look closer: the land is breathing.  This annual mist is the land breathing.

See?  The Lord is waking from His sleep of death; He draws breath, shakes off the snow, and He exhales.

The mule deer poke holes in the snow.  And the snow melts around it.  Now Jack-in-the-Green can seize His chance!

The Lord raises His green head.  Or in other words, the broadleaf sage sends out shoots and begins to rise as the land releases its water vapour while the snow melts.  The pockets of trapped heat from the catalyst of new growth break open, the resurrected sage oozes heat into the snow, and the land breathes.

Again with the Okanagan bunchgrass.

Arise, Jack in the Green!

The Lady of the Lake, who has been holding Her breath, awaiting Her lover's return; She, too, exhales in relief; once again Her love returns from the Underworld!  The breathing lake warms the air.  It calls back the waterfowl.  The ducks and the geese are moving back through, and some will soon settle.

There are buds on the fruit and chestnut trees.

The air fills with birds; the cedar waxwings have returned!  They fill every tree.

Every tree.

Every tree.

Brigid weeps for joy!  Her rowans fill with the birds.

She weeps Her bloody tears into the snow.

She offers up Her bright berries, carried through the winter to feed the returning birds while the Lord of the Greenwood awakens.

Today it's snowing; but winter is already on the retreat, and you can see the Imbolc signs if you only know where to look!

Featuring the beautiful nature photography of Harold Rhenisch, who maintains a fantastic blog about the ecosystem of my native Okanagan Valley called Okanagan Okanogan, after the two variant spellings of this fantastic valley that crosses over the 49th Parallel.  Copyright (c) 2015.  Used by permission.