A Little Winter Cheer and a Taste of Spring

Sometimes even the ordinary can be lovely. This House Finch was in particularly fine colour today in Vancouver--maybe it was the cold crisp weather warmed by bright sunshine, the strong sense of spring sitting just around the corner. The catkins on the red alders are already expanding, there are new grass shoots adding a splash of green to the browns of winter, even our clematis is showing tufts of new growth. You can taste spring even while the wind is chill, and frost lies heavy in the shade. I think this finch could taste spring. It's an introduced species, but one that we can like. It almost makes the Himalayan blackberry stem it is sitting on look good. Almost.