Signs That Spring Has Returned to Prospect Park

  • The Mr. Softee truck at the corner of 11th St. and Prospect Park West
  • Wonderful soft green grass spread like a quilt beneath the still-brown trees
  • Baseball games at the ball fields
  • Me in a jeanskirt, a short-sleeved shirt, and no hose, reading on a park bench with my shoes off
  • Families having picnics
  • Skateboarders at the bandshell
  • Lovers wrapped around each other on blankets beneath trees
  • Later: Me running in shorts and a t-shirt
  • The weather at the perfect temperature for running: warm enough to be comfortable, but cool enough that you don't get overheated
  • Kids on Big Wheels
  • Dry horse trails (as opposed to muddy or snow-covered ones) (better for running, btw)
  • Robins
  • The little Hasidic girls wearing long pink skirts rather than black skirts as they take their Sunday walk with their parents
  • Willow trees frothing green
  • Nicely built men running with no shirts on (you never see the unnicely built ones without shirts)
  • The return of the African drumming circle
  • The sounds of their drums thrumming throughout the park
  • Redbud trees in bloom
  • White flowers on some other kind of tree (sorry, Ted, I'm ignorant on this point)
  • More people than I've seen during all my winter runs combined
  • Daffodils
  • Birds tweetering
  • At home, later still: the sound of the Mr. Softee song as the truck returns to the garage for the night