Snowdrops and crocuses paint pockets of color in the drab landscape and ospreys soar overhead. The sound of carpentry hammers the air, and businesses that have gone quiet in the off-season make noise about opening up again. Some new businesses prepare to take flight, too.

But there hasn’t been a peep yet from the spring peepers. Who can blame the wee frogs, though. Spring may have officially arrived yesterday, but winter hasn’t really ceded much ground yet. Pinkletinks do not have the option of heading south to avoid the snow. They just dig a bit deeper, pulling on another blanket of muck and mud. It could take some extra time to cast off all those layers.

But the calendar keeps chugging along, the drumbeat of time trumping Mother Nature yet again. Some years the need for spring is not so urgent. Just another season arriving, albeit one of hope and promise.

This year, though, spring emerges like a flag being raised after a long, hard battle with a very tenacious foe. Victory is close. May the pinkletink parade soon begin.