I am no Cindy Day or Frankie MacDonald. I don't have the credentials of a groundhog or an astronomer. What I do know is that yesterday, for the first time in 6 months, I turned a little dial in my car from red to blue. So this morning, April 11th, 2016, it is my personal declaration that Spring has begun on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

Right now, a great many astute readers might be thinking that Spring officially started 3 weeks ago, on the official day of March 20th, but to me, Spring in Cape Breton is more than the tilting axis of the Earth or the measurement of the stars. Spring is the time of year when you can stop worrying about how waterproof your shoes are. Spring is when you stop hearing the faint clicking of your snow tires on asphalt. Spring is when you can stop wearing jackets that look like torso shaped sleeping bags. Spring is when the entirety of Cape Breton Island breaths of collective sigh of relief, knowing that the darkness is over.

You see, while I was born here, I spent most of my life living in the southern United States. While Georgia did have 4 seasons, you never needed to own more than one coat for any particular time of year. It just didn't get that cold. Never will a Georgian know the pain of switching out tires. Never will they know the feeling of going to work in the dark, and 8 hours later leaving in the dark. Never will they view the front door of their house as some sort of spaceship airlock to some inhospitably cold, alien world. Spring was not a relief to them. It was a date.

But Cape Breton has 4 seasons. Some brutal. Some brief. But all distinct. And as Winter drags on into the late weeks of March, the collective sanity of Cape Breton Island hangs from a thread, being constantly threatened by one last surprise snowstorm. Our smiles get a little shakier. Our eyes grow a little dimmer. Then a day like today comes, and reminds us that it's all going to be alright.

So it is my pleasure to make the completely unofficial announcement from me to you, that today, April 11th, 2016, is the first day of Spring on Cape Breton Island.

Also, there were some geese in my front yard. Hooray.