The Green Sloth

If you have children who watch Animal Planet, then you may have been introduced to the sloth.  It's funny, but that slow-moving animal is exactly what I keep thinking about in regard to Spring this year.

I've been watching for changes in my backyard for the past few weeks.  I keep waiting for the little buds to appear and spread their green across the bare branches of the scrub oak trees.  The truth is, while the aspens have budded (and then frozen, turning a sickly black), the scrub oak are as barren as they were when the snow began to fly last Fall.  

I can't help but compare the slow progress of my landscape's rebirth to the slowness of the sloth.  Did you know that the sloth can remain motionless for nearly indefinite amounts of time?  And that it can sleep for 20 hours a day?  That it is so slow-moving that it actually turns green from the algae that grows on its fur?  I think Spring has taken on a slothful nature and complacency.  I wish I could shake things up a bit and get things moving!  I'm afraid that if the little buds don't get to work soon, the only green I'll be seeing on my trees this year is that same algae that grows on the back of the sloth!