Somehow, it got to be the month of March... how did that happen?
I have always liked March, because it somehow feels like the end of winter is close at hand... and I can go outside and sense that nature is slowly starting to shake off its dormancy from the coldness and darkness.
So, I went in search of signs of spring:
The forsythias tend to be the first harbingers of Spring...
The air seems to have changed; it is like the "edge" has gone off the cold in such a way that it feels more likely that today will be warmer than yesterday, rather than colder.
I'm not sure what this shrub is called, but it's starting to leaf out...
Of course, we're still a ways from actual warm weather; typically the last night frosts of winter occur around mid-April.
However, we are about to take the preparatory steps for getting this year's vegetable garden started, cleaning out this final dead bits and getting the soil ready.
Another sign of spring: the tiny white daisies that grow in pretty much all lawns in the northern hemisphere....
Seedlings have been started under the heat lamps in the garage for some of the slower growers like tomatoes and onions. Potatoes are slowly setting sprouts.
Some people buy potato "sets." We never have; just a couple of 5lb bags of organic potatoes, wait for them to "bud;" plant the ones that do, eat the ones that don't!
Our Vinca groundcover also tends to set it's purple blooms early...
A few things only did back if we have repeated and prolonged frosts.
This year, some of the calendulas in what we call "the meadow" did quite well... and are already adding splashes of color to the winter garden.
The calendulas kept blooming, even during our short period of snow...
The lowlands are thawing out, but up in the mountains the snow keeps pouring down.
As of the last day of February, the Interstate Highway pass across the Cascades had received 415" of snow so far, this season. That's not at "a ski resort," that's where a 4 lanes in each direction motorway cuts through the mountains.
Most of us cannot even imagine 415 inches (10.5m) of snow, but loosely speaking, it's like opening a 4th story window and stepping outside onto the snow!
The Hellebores (sometimes called "Lenten Roses") are blooming...
It's nice to see it all come back to life!
For now, it looks like rain, so I'm heading back inside to do some end-of-month bookkeeping and get started on this new month's work.
Of course, for those of you who live in the tropics, most of this post probably doesn't mean very much... but up here in the north, we celebrate the renewal and rebirth that comes with spring.
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your day!
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Created at 20210301 15:45 PST
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It's exciting, isn't it? The sun is higher in the sky. That's what feels miraculous to me. The sun on the snow just takes my breath away this time of year. We won't won't have flowers in Minnesota until May, but from here on out it will be tolerable because of the longer days and temperatures above freezing.
415 inches of snow? That's crazy!
And yeah, you don't need to buy potato starters. You just let them sit for a week and they'll have sprouts!
Minnesota... yeah, those are the really cold parts! We're a lot milder out here on the coast, and no Lake Effect snows. It's just nice to see life come back to things...
400"+ at the Interstate 90 pass is considered "good" in the sense that it's enough for the spring melt to fill the reservoirs to the point where we're unlikely to have water shortages in case of a dry summer. So we're in good shape for the summer, it looks like!
I can't believe you have all those already! Calendulas! My Hellebore didn't have buds last I looked. It's always had them in the past. Not sure why none this year...
I was actually a little surprised... I saw something tiny and yellow in the thicket from my home office window... and it was forsythias! We've only had one significant snow, and ne period of hard freeze this winter, which is unusually mild... so things are a little early.