Grey spring, a fun film, and a magpie

This picture was taken from the car as we drove home from seeing another film in town. We seem to be doing a lot of cinema just now but with the spring weather as it is there's not a lot of joy in being outside.
In town we'd seen Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" (French: La Science des rêves, literally The Science of Dreams) from 2006. There is a lot of animation, many dreams, a love affair, much comedy, some sadness... The New York Times critic wrote that it was a "puzzling, mostly delightful experience ... watching “The Science of Sleep” unfold." It was fun, and it is quite a while since I laughed out loud so much while watching a film.
Yes, I mentioned our spring. As the main blip shows the snow has mostly melted from the fields but the lakes are still covered in ice. It rains, sleets, snows now and again, out of a grey sky. 
There is a sort of terse beauty in the landscape. It is a mixture of toughness, winter is survived, and waiting, come spring, come! In the extra you can see one of the winter survivors. One of its survival techniques has been learning to balance on a twig and grab a bit of fat. That's quite tricky for a magpie but this one has been steadily getting better and my fatballs disappear a lot quicker than they used to!
The birch trees look bare in the picture but there is a red tinge to them which is caused by the tiny budlets on each twig.  A day of warmth and sun and the real buds will appear, another similar day and there will be tiny leaves. But when will it come?
If we can trust the forecast Tuesday, the last day of April will be sunny and very warm - perhaps up to 15°C. I do hope that is right!