Our spring has been delayed.  Repeatedly.  Yet just when we’d survived two snowfalls in the past week, the temperature surged above 60 degrees for the first time since last November.  And then it topped 70 degrees, creating a mass exodus of everyone to the outdoors.  The switch had been flipped and it gave us the sunshine and warmth we were all craving.  I spent yesterday working in the yard and flower beds, removing the covering of marsh grass we had laid down last fall.  And much to my surprise I found tulips;  here they stood as a testament to surviving our cold and long winter, reaching up about two inches through the recently thawed topsoil.  The emerging stalks were multi-colored with shades of green, brown, and even a deep purple.  How simple and yet how resilient, and so representative of spring.