Spring arrived a couple of days early on this St. Patrick’s Day.

My Toulouse goose, Sal, laid a large white egg this morning. Sal is the first of my recently acquired geese flock to present us with an egg, and in a few weeks, a gosling who will be named, of course, Pattie, Patrick or Paddy.

She was carefully and gently placing pieces of straw around her precious offspring, one blade at a time, while watching the other geese closely.

She ignored me as I tossed their morning treat of a head of chopped up lettuce into the pen. But as soon as she was sure that the egg was safe, she came out from under the tiny, make-shift house and joined with the others – happily honking and eagerly munching on the green lettuce leaves.

The egg was covered in straw now, safe from the chilly weather. But it will be OK, regardless of the temperatures over the next few days, for Sal will make sure it is kept warm by her body and abundance of feathers.

I’ve been watching my three (I think) female geese very closely during the past few weeks and I knew something was up.

Sal, along with her stepsister, a young white, Sebastopol goose, have been spending a lot of time inside the plywood shelter. They have been sitting, highly unusual for them, and seemed to be checking out each location within the shelter for just the right spot. They were testing out the straw, and, a sure bet that eggs were about to be laid, pulling out breast down feathers to use in a nest.

The male geese have pretty much stayed away and seemed to have banished themselves from the shelter.

These geese have been such a joy for me since I bought the Sebastopols in October, then decided I wanted a couple more female geese. If anyone wants anything, Uncle Henry’s is the place to go, and sure enough, the week before Christmas someone wanted to give away several geese, so on the day after Christmas, my husband and I drove to Wayne with two cat carriers, picked them up and brought them home. The cat carriers, however, weren’t big enough, so the two grey geese were stuffed into two cardboard boxes.

And now, one of those two freebies has made me so happy.

March is my favorite month, and with the laying of the first of what I hope will be several goose eggs, spring has arrived.

Despite the 100 inches of snow that has fallen this year, and the snowbanks piled high in the yard and in front of the house, signs of spring are everywhere. And I know that just as soon as those snowbanks melt, the crocuses, tulips and daffodils will pop up practically overnight. For now, they are staying warm and gathering energy for their spectacular show.

If we look closely at the lilac bushes, although they may be two-thirds covered with snow, like mine are, the buds are swelling. So are the buds of the pear tree. If we listen carefully to the chickadee’s call, it has changed to his mating song.

There’s a definite smell of spring in the air, and although there’s still several feet of snow on my garden and the garden shed looks like a snow pyramid, the century-old apple trees growing right near it are showing all the signs of producing sweet, delicious Wealthies for another season.

So now, despite all the snow, and all the water in the yard whenever the ice melts, and all the mud that will soon be tracked into the house, spring is very definitely on the doorstep. I expect Sally and Sue to follow Sal’s lead very soon. For now, though, I say thank you to Sal. She has ushered in spring in a most wonderful way.