IT’S SPRUNG: Our weekend’s reprieve from winter brought in a
bunch of animal sightings.

A Port Allegany woman saw 12 turkey buzzards circling in the sky
Sunday morning on Two Mile Road.

(They’re probably on their way back to Westline where they show
up every year on March 15.)

And, on Saturday evening, there were 25 cedar waxwings at the
same residence. “We haven’t noticed them all winter and it was nice
to see them.”

Carolyn Abbey spotted a single robin in a yard driving on Route
446 out of Farmers Valley going towards Bradford on Sunday. She
thought it was too early for robins, but “I guess not.”

Robins were also spotted Monday morning at Chapel Ridge near
South Kendall Avenue.

Meanwhile, we had a message last week from Larry Vecellio
passing along “a friendly comment” from Gainesville, Ga.: “It was a
nice 72 degrees today, the flowers and trees are starting to bloom
all over and we have to turn the AC on in the car or roll down the
window. Starting to play softball already and the fishing is great
at Lake Lanier.”

Perhaps the greatest thing about winter – a subject we have
pondered intently the past couple of months – might be the
re-emergence of spring.

How wonderful is it to see those first indications that life has
returned? The birds are back, buds reappear on the trees, the first
colt’s foot, pussy willows, deer coming back in the yard.

They made it! … And so did we.

SAVING TIME: OK, so we did it again. A couple years ago we were
chastised for writing Daylight Savings Time. In fact, it is
Daylight Saving Time – no “s” on Saving. However, we did not learn
from that criticism and have repeated the error this year.

We will try, try again.

Meanwhile, we had a very cynical comment about the start of
Daylight Saving Time.

Many people have given explanations about the steep increase in
gas prices in recent weeks. Bradford, as of this writing, is
ranging from $2.55 to $2.59.

Could it be that the increase was prompted by the early return
to Daylight Saving Time?

After all, that move was intended to save energy costs. Could it
be that the petroleum producers took proactive steps to recoup that
potential loss by increasing fuel prices?

We said it was cynical!