First day of Spring

This morning at 7:46 am marked the official start of spring.  And with the very mild weather we've been having for the last month it felt well over due.  Flowers are popping up all over town, spring birds who we haven't seen for months are back, making new homes, and there is just a general feeling of spring-jackets flung off, car windows open, joggers and cyclists out and about, children playing on bikes in yards.

So imagine our surprise this morning when little snow flakes started to fall.  And it was 2C, so it seemed a very unlikely thing.

At first it was just a few here and there, all melting on impact, but lovely none the less.  Then it got heavier and heavier until the sky was filled with flakes and the ground started to turn white.  I took a number of photos throughout the morning (but unfortunately with a new computer, I can't work out how to put them in sequential order)...

Lilly was surprised by the snow

Because the trees all have buds, it looks so different when the snow covers their branches 
Honey was beside herself with excitement-the dog loves snow.  Here she is finding something to eat under the bush-I won't tell you what it is because it is really disgusting.
Snow everywhere-took this photo less than 1/2 an hour ago and already most of it has melted.
This was when it was coming down hard and only just starting to settle.

A cute little Ella at the bus stop this morning-there were flakes falling, but you  can't really see them.

And proof that despite Winter's last ditch exertion spring really has begun-bulbs (and I didn't plant any last autumn) starting to come up.  And while I can still see a few flakes falling here and there, I suspect that that's it.