All of a sudden, with the greening of summer lawns, all sorts of things around here seem to be taking a turn for the better.

Or maybe it's just the sunny side of my imagination.

Certainly if you buy into the optimism of the Mohegans for their plans to develop Norwich Hospital — a "game changer" for the region, they say — the economic outlook keeps getting rosier.

I don't ever remember a time when there were more submarine contracts queued up for Electric Boat, so many that the new job crisis is training qualified applicants in time to fill all the expected openings.

The New London City Council just gave a green light to a new housing project that will not only vastly improve the lives of hundreds of city residents, but generate new tax revenue.

It also paves the way for the city to someday market the land under the Gold Star Memorial Bridge where the low-income high rises now stand.

Maybe the Mohegans will buy it.

Ever positive, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal last week made it clear he expects the National Coast Guard Museum to be built on the water in New London, as planned.

Blumenthal says he called the commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to tell him that it has to happen soon, after doubts surfaced about whether the site in a flood plain is buildable.

I'm not sure how a senator can tell a state commissioner to ignore environmental siting regulations — the kind of regulations the same senator defended for many years as Connecticut attorney general.

But hey, it's good to know the senator is worrying about progress on the museum.

Speaking of New London progress, how exciting will it be to have a ferry service this summer connecting the city with Groton?

Those splashes you will hear soon on the Thames River will be the sound of the two new launches that have been acquired for the service going into the water.

The service will be a draw for tourists. But locals will be able to buy a season pass for $50 or so and ride it all summer.

Support the service. Buy a pass.

The summer political season is also greening up and promises to be more lively than we thought.

Nick Mullane, longtime popular first selectman and now selectman of North Stonington, won the Republican nomination to challenge Diana Urban for her House seat in the legislature.

Mullane's timing is superb, given his reputation for thriftiness and the state's foundering on a financial iceberg that Democrats in the General Assembly steered into.

Both Mullane and Urban say they look forward to debates. I do, too.

In Mystic, residents along Groton's Allyn Street corridor have gone into deep GPS denial, convincing the Town Council to reverse a decision to erect new signs on Interstate 95 directing travelers through Groton to downtown Mystic.

Northbound travelers will still take Exit 89, though, if they enter Sift Bake Shop, the glamorous new bakery in downtown Mystic, into their directions systems.

I predict Sift delicacies will replace a lot of ice cream cones for the strolling, visiting class in Mystic.

It's big, too, with more people in white smocks than you see at the Lawrence + Memorial emergency room.

And pretty soon Mystic lickers and chewers won't be strolling by fences masking the burned-out block on Main Street. Construction of the replacement is rolling along.

Other new Mystic food outlets still under construction and greening up for summer are probably better approached from Exit 90.

Those include the very promising wine bar planned for a converted gas station on West Main Street. It's a sibling of Saltwater Vineyard of Stonington, and I expect it will be designed and managed equally well.

The other new Mystic eatery coming together is a barbecue restaurant, which also has a Stonington sibling.

The new barbecue joint, the former Cove Fish Market near the Big Y, will no doubt pack them in as successfully as its sister restaurant, Dog Watch Café.

I wonder, though, about the giant hedge of arborvitae trees planted around the border last week, deer food.

So maybe it also will be a good eating summer for the deer.

I've already heard them talking in the woods around my house about the vast new supply of tasty greens going in the ground.

And everywhere else, lawns are greening up.

The bad part is that mowing can't be far behind.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com