Once again – it’s wonderful to be able to pick up the phone and have my Vermont daughter Laurie write this column on short notice. She did a great job of telling everyone how nice it is up there this time of year. Made me wish I could pack a bag and leave for the Champlain Valley. Thanks, Laurie – again.

Taking short vacations in the Danbury Hospital seems to becoming a bad habit with me. After a few days of being poked, prodded, and tested, I was sent home with bottles of pills and a better regulated heart beat. I’m slowed down for the present, but managing.

It never ceases to be amazing the way some daffodils, a few hyacinths, and the forsythia bush respond to a few warm days, some showers, and April. Overnight, they appear and are welcome.

My friend Phil Jones down in Shelton also spent a few days in a hospital. He called the other day and after we had complained to one another about getting old and the pluses and minuses of that era, he told me about the really important things – like strawberries. He said they’ll probably be early this year, so be ready you cooks with biscuits!

This column was supposed to have been written yesterday, but it was the time instead to thoroughly enjoy the Huskies victory and the mania that it produced, with headlines like “Blowout,” and “Swish,” and “Huskies Smother Vols.” It was a day to enjoy, with headlines like murder, fire, and unpleasant things pushed to page two or wherever; it was so good to see something happy and uplifting.

I am a really big Huskies fan and I have never been at all enchanted with Tennessee – so it was especially good to watch the celebrations on TV and read about them in the papers. It was impressive to see the big numbers of families at the Gampel Pavilion celebration. The team members conducted themselves with good humor and an attitude that reflected happiness and grace. It rubbed off on the spectators. Their coach, Geno Aunemma, comes across as a sincere and regular fellow, and to get where they did, and how they did it, there had to be a lot of hard work, respect, and love, all around. We thank them all for a year of great games and entertainment.

More and more birds are returning to their summer haunts. The migration continues through May. The juncos have been in the yard every morning until today. Have they left for the northern places where they breed? I think so. Soon it will be time to put up the hummingbird feeders.

Ed turned on the hose and cleaned the bird water dish Saturday. An hour after he left, the pair of bluejays arrived and drank for several minutes. Suddenly, one plunged into the center of the dish and took a very long bath. The summer season has begun.

The quote two weeks ago that ended the column was by Thomas Hardy, who wrote the lines about the loss of the Titanic.

Who wrote, “The crows will tumble up and down at the first sign of spring, and in old trees around the town, brush winter from its wing”?