Spring in the Air

I smell spring. It smells like wet dirt. Maybe like dirt that earth worms have been crawling through. I know I'm not describing it adequately enough but I'm sure you know what I mean and what I smell.

I'm sure I sound premature to most people, especially those trapped in the throws of a North American winter but I am, after all, in France. It is definitely spring here. The ground is green and brown. Green with blooming winter crops and brown waiting crops. You can see the vineyards are ready to do something but are not quite there, brown on the ground and ready to sprout. You can see it and you can smell it, that damp, almost ready to garden, dirt smell. I am actually on a high speed train between Nice and Paris and I can still smell it. It makes me long for the garden, wonder at what will grow this year, what weeds I will have trouble with and how much rain and sun we will get. It's spring in France. How far away can spring be in Canada? Here's wishing for an early spring and a great season of gardening and harvesting. Wes