I saw the first snow drop leaves just before our first February snow (at least 6 months ago, wasn’t it?). As the piled up snows are finally melting and leaving the yard, there are snow drops already in bloom – and the little yellow aconite buds are ready to open at the first hint of sunshine. The leaves of the buttercups that will follow the aconite are spreading themselves out surreptitiously in the middle of the ivies and myrtle.
The tips of the daylily leaves are already poking through, though they won’t bloom until July. And I think I saw the tiny first leaves of the coral bells I’ve been planting along the edge of the driveway. All these green shoots have just been waiting their opportunity.
The biggest tipoff of all that spring is here? The birds have started that extraordinary spring racket bright and early in the morning. Get moving, they’re telling us. The cowbirds have already come back (beautiful and awful at the same time), and the many different migrators are starting to show up on the patio for breakfast.
This first day of March was cloudy and gray, but not rainy or snowing or impossibly cold. so does that mean March came in like a Lion or a Lamb? Not really sweet and soft, but definitely not loud and roaring. Hmmmm.