I know a lot of people who watch for the first crocuses on Gordon Williams’ lawn, or for the daffodils up on Mt Pleasant as signs that spring has finally taken over from winter. But my most reliable signs of spring are literally signs — the “open” signs at the local ice cream stands.

The Ice Cream Shop on Church Hill Road opened this week. A small line was already forming from the counter into the parking lot of the Church Hill Road frozen treat shop on Monday afternoon, when a few commuters decided to enjoy a cup or cone before resuming their ride up or down Church Hill Road.

Also, out along Route 302 this week I saw that the familiar ice cream cone billboard has been posted at Ferris Acres Creamery. Everyone waiting for their first cup of fresh ice cream from the farm stand has less than a week to go. The Creamery will be open for the season on April 4. Choices, choices!

Temperatures in the high 60s brought out the walkers Tuesday afternoon. They joined the regulars, who seem to walk no matter what the seasons. This latter group includes Herb Rosenthal, who was walking his dog, as always, up Church Hill Road shortly after noon. Meanwhile, Ken and Laura Lerman were spotted walking hand-in-hand along one of the Main Street sidewalks.

Even The Bee dogs, with human escorts, felt frisky on Tuesday afternoon… for a few minutes. Deeke and Rosie were rearing to go on, but Starr decided she was happier back at her post under the carousel horse in our front office after a quick walk around the block. Deeke and Rosie headed up to the general store without her.

While I was pussyfooting around the Internet I came across the splendid new website for the C.H. Booth Library, CHBoothLibrary.org. It seems the old site was no longer sufficient to support all of the information the library puts forth, so over the course of the past year, librarians Kim Weber and Brenda McKinley worked with local web designer Peter Bjorknas to create a site that would be easy to use and lovely to look at. It seems to me that they have succeeded. Now I have yet another reason to play with the mouse.

Diane Orlando stopped by the library last week to pick up a few big-print copies of the NewtownREADS selection, To Kill A Mockingbird for some of the residents at Lockwood Lodge, where Diane visits two to three times each week. For those who prefer to listen, Diane is going to be reading the book out loud there in anticipation of a book discussion pulled together by one of Lockwood’s newest residents, Mary Mitchell. Just three days after the moving van had pulled away from her new address, Mary was on the phone to the library planning this activity for her new neighbors.

Kim Weber would like to remind everyone that playing The Ham during Newtown’s current NewtownREADS celebration of To Kill A Mockingbird is an equal opportunity. “Have any of you seen the ham? Does anyone want to be the ham?” she wrote in an email earlier this week. Kim can promise you a spot on the Wall of Fame... Just call the library at 426-4533 and the ham costume is yours for a day or a weekend. “This is a sure way to make friends and family who don’t live in Newtown wish they did. Where else can you be a real ham?” she challenged.

Remember Jennifer Staple? Bee readers were introduced to this enterprising young woman in September, when she became one of 30 young leaders profiled in the book Our Time Is Now: Young People Changing the World. Jennifer was home this week, on break from her studies at Stanford University, but she continues to keep busy. The Newtown native is also the founder, CEO and president of Unite For Sight, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that addresses preventable blindness. Now Jennifer has been selected for a Brick Award, which comes with a $10,000 award for her organization (which has already helped more than 400,000 people in 25 countries since being formed in Jennifer’s dorm while she was studying at Yale University). Jennifer and the 11 other 2007 Brick Awards winners will be honored during an awards ceremony in New York City next month. Four of this year’s Brick winners will also be presented with a Golden Brick Award — a second check, each for $15,000 — to use toward their organization, and that’s where Newtown can help Jennifer. Visit DoSomething.org/brick to learn about the awards, the selection process, all 12 of this year’s winners, and how to vote for the four additional Golden Brick awards. Voting for the Golden Brick must be done by midnight April 9. Make sure you vote for our Jennifer — there are two Brick Award-winning Jennifers this year.

Finally, more room on my favorite cool, dry shelf! If you have a shelf full of old videotapes you’re never going to watch, Charter Communications will be paying the cost of collecting, removing, and recycling these nonbiodegradable items by working with GreenDisk (Greendisk.org), an environmentally conscious company. According to Greg VanAntwerp at the local cable access network, GreenDisk will securely dispose of all the recorded information on tapes by bulk erasing, then break down each tape to be used in the manufacture of new products. So start looking through your old tapes (any format). Decide which ones you no longer need and drop them off at 11 Commerce Road anytime during the month of April.

It seems the American bald eagles that nest every year on Barton Island in the Connecticut River know a thing or two about global warming. I was checking them out online to see how they’re doing and found they’ve got two eggs laid already, and the first one was laid on February 28. That’s a whole week earlier than any previously recorded Barton Island eagle egg. Everything is going smoothly with the parents sharing incubation duties and the first egg due to hatch on April 4. If readers want to follow the eagle family’s progress, they should log onto the live streaming video at www.neenergyinc.com/eagles/. That’s a new website for those who’ve watched the eagles in the past, since FirstLight Power Resources of Massachusetts bought the island and eagle nesting site from Northeast Utilities in 2006.

For those who want to follow my progress this spring, there’s only one way to do it…

Read me again.