IS SPRING REALLY COMING?

I guess it's getting close to the time I can begin looking for clues that spring might actually be coming????

We've been watching the piles of snow begin to diminish. This photo was taken two days ago. There is a thick snow pancake on the roof and I think it will take a rainfall to dislodge it. I'm getting pretty impatient.

At the front of the house, at the top of the rock garden, there's a spot without snow. I keep thinking there will be something popping up that's colorful, but the most colorful thing there is a bedraggled clump of hens and chicks. They are barely greenish.

HELP!