A droplet is pictured on moss. Photo by Taylor Brennan When the long winter months come to its final days, we all desperately search for any signs that will bring a break from nature’s cold darkness.

In late January 2001, in the dead of winter, I wrote about signs of spring. I was grasping at straws, looking for any hints that the winter – a hard winter at that –would come to an end. We all do ...