From Snow To Spring, In A Week

Yesterday we had a snow-eater south wind! It was up in the mid-sixties by the afternoon, and the snow is gone, except for some tiny patches hidden in wooded areas. Wandering around, I took a few pictures of spring emerging in the garden.

These are the purple crocus, pushing up through the leaves and mulch.

These two snow drops emerged a month ago, and have been in stasis. They don't seem any worse for the experience.

The yellow crocus, always early to bloom here.

The heather, which has bloomed all winter and simply emerges from the snow looking just as it went in, and the first honey bee I've seen so far.

Late February Snow

We got about 5 inches of a heavy wet snow last night. This morning was really beautiful, and fortunately now it's all melting away.

Some Garden Clean Up

This afternoon was in the very low 40's. Emma and I spent some time outside. She is still planning more fairy gardens, and collecting cool sticks and moss. I was able to clean up some more areas, cutting down the old perennial stems from the birch bed. I try to limit my cleaning up in early spring, since I don't want to remove the old leaves that might be protecting new shoots and spring bulbs. Doing it slowly is easier on my back and hip too.

There are two snowdrop buds up. Given that one has been up for weeks, I wonder if it will ever actually open. The scilla are also showing tips near the house, where it's warmer. I was surprised to see daffodil and crocus tips in gardens that are farther away from the house, and a climbing rose that never blooms but also never dies has leafed out in two places! That's a couple of weeks ahead of last spring, from what I can tell in last years blog entries.

I'm almost more surprised about signs of spring this year because I keep expecting winter to actually happen.

Working outside . . .

In early February! Yesterday I couldn't resist --in 42 balmy degrees, with a fleece and light gloves, I headed out to cut down the old stalks of the asters near the front porch. Then I sat on the garden bench for a while, while Emma started planning the spring's fairy houses.

And, the snowdrops near the house are already up. Silly flowers, they're going to regret that!

Frosty

We don't have much snow left, which is unusual for us this time of year. But with some slightly-above-freezing temps we managed a thick fog last night that left everything covered in hoar frost. In fact, the trees were still frosted this afternoon because the sun never burned the fog off.

I took these pictures after dropping my daughter off at school, and coming home again before heading off to work myself.

This is the street where one end of our driveway exits (we live on a corner lot):

And this was the street as I was driving back home, with our driveway on the left.

Before I went into the house, I wandered around near the driveway with my iPhone camera. I love the way the frost outlines the squiggly, dried up leaves on last summer's brown-eyed Susan.

This is a picture of the heather. It's been covered in snow until this recent thaw, but it always comes out looking exactly as it went in. It's a hardy little bugger. An old stalk is sticking up and coated in crystals.

This frosted grass is backed by the pebbles of an old cement foundation on our property. The pebbles themselves look pretty cool.

Pretty In White

I've given in, and taken some pictures of the winter garden. We got another 6 inches yesterday, and it's still pristine. Well, it was. Now my footprints are everywhere :-)

Two views from afar:

And some close-ups:

I should really try to learn more about my camera settings so my snow pictures don't come out so gray.

Winter Now

We finally got snow, and I'm not at all motivated to take any photos. Of course, the temps in the teens are part of the reason :-)