Next Wednesday, March 20, marks the official First Day of Spring. Of course, I don’t need a calendar to tell me that late winter is yielding to what I consider the loveliest season of all. I can simply look outside where the daffodils in my yard are lifting their delicate faces to the sun.

I’d have tulips, too, if squirrels hadn’t eradicated my bulbs. Last year, after my carefully planted tulip bulbs didn’t show any signs of sprouting, I discovered they’d been munched on by these nasty little tree rodents. To console myself, I bought a pot of already blooming tulips to replace the missing bulbs beside the steps of my front porch.

A day later, I found these beautiful tulips beheaded. I blamed that form of sabotage on  rabbits I’d seen in my yard. I guess even if squirrels don’t destroy tulip bulbs, rabbits will snip off the flowers. Sigh.

For some reason, daffodils aren’t on either the squirrel or rabbit buffet, so I’ve decided to concentrate on cultivating beds of those around my house. It’s easier than fighting rabbits and squirrels with homemade repellents that don’t seem to work or awful- smelling chemicals.

Springtime outside means springtime inside. I’ve put up the last vestiges of my winter decorations, “icy” Christmas trees I’d used for a centerpiece and a red berry garland I had draped over the top of the piano.

 Since Sunday will be St. Patrick’s Day, I gave the dining room chandelier a little luck of the Irish. We’ll have a family dinner around this table either Sunday or Monday to celebrate my youngest daughter’s birthday, March 18.

Along with the calendar changing from winter to spring, the time has also changed. Yep, like most of America, we’re now into Daylight Savings Time (DST). Last weekend, we had to “spring” forward an hour, giving us an extra sixty minutes of daylight at the end of the workday. Of course, the downside is that it’s really dark now at six in the morning.

When my girls were young, I used to say that the beginning of DST was the end of the serious school year. That extra hour of daylight combined with warmer weather made it harder for me to persuade everyone in the house to do homework, eat dinner, and settle down for the night. Getting up in the dark each morning to go to school was no picnic either.

These girls are grown and gone now, but DST still gives me problems. I had a really difficult time going to sleep this past Sunday night, the first day of DST. (Of course, that extra-long Sunday nap probably didn’t help either.)

Another aggravation is changing all those clocks that don’t automatically reset. Like this one in my kitchen.

The clocks in my car are still on the old time. I’ll probably mentally add an hour for at least a couple of months until I finally take a few minutes to dig out my owner’s manual and read up on how to reset the time. (Need I say electronics are not my thing.)

New time? Old time? Doesn’t really matter what the clock says.

It’s about time for winter to be over; it’s almost springtime.