"This is the day..."

"This is the day which the LORD hath made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it."                             - Psalm 118: 24

I don't know about you, but I think that a Leap Day is terribly exciting, even when nothing special happens. Every second of every hour feels like a present, to be celebrated and rejoiced in with uplifted hands; for it is a reminder that every day we live, in truth, is a gift of grace...

We went out on a drive yesterday, and I saw lots of encouraging signs of Spring: a diddy-wee brown calf lying curled up next to its mother; a tractor sowing seed in the middle of a ploughed field; a crow flying over head with a great long twig for its nest clamped firmly in its beak; and a whole lot of lambs gambolling and frisking about, as though they simply couldn't contain their joy at being alive.
Even a short walk down our lane brings ample proof that the season is turning. The daffodils, whose tightly furled buds have been tantalising us for weeks past, are finally coming out in triumph, and the line of dancing yellow trumpets looks like a string of gaily-clad heralds proclaiming the arrival of their Queen.

But despite all this, I'm not sure that Winter has quite given up. It hangs on by its fingertips, every now and then throwing out a long icy tenticle of chilly weather, as if it would lay claim to the full forty days given it by Candlemas/Groundhog day...