We'll be right back after these messages.

No matter what it looks like outside your window, Feb 3, 2009 is Imbolc. Or, as the pagans call it: the first day of spring. Yes, per the Christian calendar and a groundhog named Phil, spring won't be here for another month and some change.

But if you're reading this from any location in the northern hemisphere of Earth, let's just agree that it's spring. It's been dark, wet and cold for a good three months now, isn't that enough?

Maybe if we concentrate hard enough, this will happen:

Still from Flowers and Trees courtesy of The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts.