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We went walking through the cemetery, down to the water and came across several piles of sand. Since we were going to the water, my youngest decided to bring a walking stick, so he could navigate the swamp better. 
Down in the bottom of Vale Cemetery, we came across a pair of mallard ducks. I got a little too close and spooked the male, who is swimming away. I left straightaway; he came right back. It will be very interesting to see if this pair decide to nest here. It's quite wooded here, but there's open water downstream about a quarter mile away. These ducks are very common around here - we can see them in almost any small bit of water larger than a puddle!
The infamous skunk cabbages at the bottom of Vale Cemetery. They are emerging slowly from their early casings. They are about a foot tall now (30cm) .
Even my house plants are hearing the news that it is spring! My begonia looks very leggy and spindly, but it made it through another winter and like so many other plants, is now budding.
At the risk of misidentifying another plant, here is my calamondin orange. I'm pretty sure about this one, since I've eaten the fruits off it! My wife got me this for a present and I've been working to keep it going through the long winter, when it has to come indoors. Too little light and the leaves drop off. Too much water and they become yellow and sickly. No flowers at the moment, but when they come they are a beautiful pale white with an aroma that's heavenly.
This is another early spring flower, a snowdrop. I have only one in my garden; to be honest, I'm not really sure how it got there. I planted several dozen bulbs over the years, but the squirrels dig them up and eat them! Now, instead of a well-ordered garden, I have a patchy assortment of now-random flowers. It makes for pleasant surprises when they come up though!
Babooshka has critters on her Mothering Sunday post and they are a lot cuter than this one!
Taken just a few minutes ago, this is what the sky looks like in Schenectady - no rain! The morning sun is just peeping above the houses and it isn't quite high enough yet to reach the lower branches.
It's the time of year when ice crystals form on top of puddles, then the puddles evaporate (or the ice dam holding them breaks and they flow away!) This leaves a delicate bridge of ice crystals suspended in mid-air. For a while, until traffic vibrations crumble them.
Down by the river, near all that ice, tucked away in a crevice I found this most beautifully green moss. I couldn't take my eyes off it. I don't know the name of the little plants growing with it, but that's beautiful too. The crevice is about as tall as my finger is wide.
It's a crocus! The first one in my yard. I thought I'd show that traditional flowers do grow here.
The river is clear of ice, but the banks still have some good sized blocks up there. I went walking in the Stockade, the old part of town, on Saturday and decided to see how the river looked. The amazing thing, aside from these large ice cubes, is the giant old trees standing right at the edge - ice piled up around them. This happens to them every year and they still keep growing - one of them is over 6 feet in diameter!
Not processed; this is what the camera saw. I went walking through Vale again, and found a patch of snow with a baby skunk cabbage just melting through to the surface. You can see how the plant made a little bubble of warmth under the snow. The plant itself hasn't reached the top of the snow, but it was warm enough to melt the snow above it.
One of the things we sometimes get to see in late winter is this: a leaf in it's own leaf-shaped hole in the ice.
It's another Skywatch Friday. Click the link for the other, official participants.
This might not look like spring to everyone, but it looks like spring to me: I can see running water! I can also hear it and... it has this marvelous smell! Yes, there is still snow on the ground, but in a week it will be gone.
Another sign of spring - ice jams on the Mohawk River. Looking downstream from above Lock 8, this is similar to a shot from October, but not exactly the same spot.
Marguerite-Marie gave me the idea for some photos of spring. Well, Bretagne is a bit farther along than we are, but the first sign of our spring plants have popped out: Skunk cabbage.
Not a very large ice cave, to be sure! This is the remnant of the snow bank in front of my house. The water has eroded a tunnel through it; a very common sight. It takes a very tall snow bank to support a tunnel this wide though (it's about a yard / 1 metre across.)
Went for a walk in Vale Cemetery yesterday. On the north side, many trees were downed by the ice storm in December. One side effect was seeing this copper angel - I must have walked by her a dozen times, but she was hidden in the trees. Today, she's impossible to miss! I tried one of Babooshka's fancy 'sun on the lens' shots and I kind of like it.
It's Skywatch Friday again! It's supposed to be warm - above freezing for most of the day - and the conditions most likely to bring that about are: clouds. Uniform cloud cover. I know where the sun is but I'll be darned if I can get as much of a hint of it in a photo!
Babooshka and I are getting snow at the same time! 
Snapped this getting out of the car. It's dusk and that gives this image a strange air. This is the newly fallen snow atop the old snow bank. I always like the way new snow looks, and it's a double bonus for covering that dirty old snow!
This alien looking... thing is what's left of the snow bank in the street next to my house. It's snowing again today; we're expecting up to 6 inches of new snow to fall. I'll post the results tomorrow.
