I AM looking forward to Spring, but I'm not in a rush.

We've been having a lovely winter here in Southcentral Alaska. While we've been laying doggo in our homes people here are abundant in common sense and our numbers have been improving. We've been free to shop and to pick up meals to go and to walk in the lovely parks of the city.

Since we're into March, I especially notice the ravens which are expressing territoriality and pairing up and playing face-off air games in the winds that create updrafts and gusts over the edges of our market buildings. Of an evening large males are making their quark calls atop forests of parking lot lamps. I will miss them, because in the warmer weather of Spring they will be much less represented in their foodland of humanity, but rather will raise their young in the wildlands about twenty or more miles away, a safe commute for the adults.

In the past I've noticed the interface of large populations of birds as seagulls will arrive and there will be a period with lots of them an lots of ravens. Both are supreme aerialists, but being built differently, their expertise varies. Gulls are highly maneuverable and lighter than ravens, and built for more soaring. Ravens are generalists, heavier and broader of body, lower aspect ratio of wing, hence they don't soar like the killing birds of prey. But their play, their rapid rolls are akin to eagles. They appear to me to be smarter than the gulls, and the gulls will yield to them.

We also have pigeons, which I also like, but unless you're near a gathering of them you don't notice them so much. I believe they are year-rounders like the ravens, but I believe they are strictly urban. As we walk the sidewalks streets and parks, we also run into urban moose, and these are rarely aggressive, but they can be, particularly around other moose and dogs.

I saw a black bear in the neighborhood last summer, and I know that bears have been around throughout the winter, but it is less usual to run into signs of bear than moose.

And everywhere we have these magical ever changing examples of hard water. How hard it can be, how soft it can be, how it can vary from day to day. If you want to go high into the nearby mountains you will strap spikes to your boots. If you want to maintain yourself on the many trails, you will fit your shoes or boots into elastic and chaing linked little spikes. If you simply want to survive a tilty parking lot, you will snap on mini or nano grips. And you will do something similar for your vehicle.

The backyard toys seem to be endless: Snowshoes, nordic skis, skate skis, crampons and ice axes. And of course all those fuel burning toys, which I have for the most part avoided.

So, Spring will come when it comes. The days are growing perceptibly and their growing is growing. It will top out soon at solstice, and of course we'll shift to Daylight Savings Time, which will be another presage to the incoming season, but we'll be able to ski locally (as in right outside on the sidewalk) for a few weeks more.