Happy Spring/Illinois primary day/apres work #2

I keep a little journal in which I track bird arrivals, last frost/snow, flower blooms, grass appearance, tree pollinating, birds leaving, , first frost/snow, chinooks, willow growth, etc. . . . and really wanted to reproduce this photo from last year (https://mltshp.com/p/1QYDI) on the first 50 degree day. . . hopefully after the red-winged blackbirds arrived. But we've had 50 degree days every single month this winter. The red-winged blackbirds arrived 8!! WEEKS!! earlier than normal. . . and anyway, when I took that photo last year we had more than 2 feet of snow still on the ground. I don't know if you can tell, but there's so little snow that there's green grass around the trees. I couldn't prop my feet up like last year because the photo would be just the ground. It's supposed to be our snowiest month of the whole year, and there's *grass*.

All my research is on climate change now, which is really depressing, and it's depressing to walk out after work and see such evidence before me like this. . . . I'm dreading wildfire season so much right now.

Anyway! There's still joy out there! All the spring birds have arrived and are singing. We have the bad habit of buying a liquor to try out a cocktail and then never really using the bottle again unless the cocktail goes into rotation, and while cleaning out our liquor cabinet after the excess of the holidays I found not one but two bottles of green chartreuse from years gone by, which is impossible to get now. I sold one to a rich neighbor and kept the other one, which I've been saving for that first true spring day so I can make my favorite version of the Last Word (https://punchdrink.com/recipes...). (It's dangerously delicious so I usually don't make it at home or else I'd have 3.) No true spring day has appeared because it's already so warm, so today for St. Pat's after work seemed as good at time as any other. So cheers! Happy spring, happy birds, happy cocktails if you're into that sort of thing, and happy green grass days!