By Terry W. Johnson

When I walked outside to retrieve the newspaper on New Year's morning the sky was gray and the temperature hovered around the freezing mark. This was definitely not the weather I had hoped experience on the first day of the year. However, before my spirits had a chance to sag, I was greeted with the loud call of a Carolina wren.

As soon as I heard the bird's cheery song, I said to myself, "What a great way to start the new year!"

By Terry W. Johnson

Each spring, a parade of flowering plants marches across the Georgia countryside. As I write this column, when I pause and look out across my yard, I am regaled with the beauty of the blossoms adorning Chickasaw plums, redbuds, yellow Jessamine, daffodils, jonquils, forsythias and pear trees. Around this neck of the woods, they are always at the head of Mother Nature’s spring parade of flowers.