The snowdrops have melted away giving their space in the lawns over to the crocuses (croci?) which have, in turn, started to give up the turf to the narcissus and daffodils. The buds of the trees are starting to swell. But it's not this, or even my overwhelming need to grab the Allegra that makes me aware that Spring is, well and truly on its way.
The sight that makes it plain that spring is beginning to spring is the sight of the Ice Cream vendors and the tacky tourist trinket peddlers returning to the bridge across the Thames near the Hampton Court Palace.
In the nearly two years that I have been coming here, this is one of the signs I have learned to read. During the fall, the number of vendors on the bridge starts to dwindle, to drop-off like the leaves from the surrounding trees. In the winter, you'll not see anything more that the occasional lunch truck on the parking lot of the rail station.
Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the return of the hawkers to the area around the palace is one of the sure signs that spring has returned to the area. Though, the flowers are nice too!
I hope wherever you are today, it is apparent that spring is on its way!
Don Bergquist - 27-March-2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, United Kingdom
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