Monday, February 20, 2006

on a winter day

Another cold morning. Of course, mornings in Indianapolis in February should be cold -- from an assumption standpoint -- but the balminess of January has thrown us off kilter. At least, instead of being tired of the cold, we are reacting to the air chill that way below freezing temperatures bring, the kind of reaction one has as winter begins seriously. To have this sensation now indicates a different set of aggravations. But I suppose either way, our patience is short.

Franklin the dog and I walk around the garden. The sweetgum tree has dumped most of its spiked balls, early really. I should rake them into the flower and shrub beds.

The dog threw out his knee again, and while I am back to carrying him up and down the stairs, and he has quit limping, it probably means that at some point we'll have to see about getting his knee mended through surgery.

He picks up the scent of a rabbit or a neighbor's cat. My money is on it belonging to the rabbit. He follows the scent, stopping to evaulation, breath in strongly, and then move on.

Amid the leaves and sweetgum balls and some dead foilage from last year's garden, small sprouts of daffodil are sticking up, about a couple of inches or so. The ornamental allium are also up a few inches. I see big buds on the flowering shrubs, the lilac, the forsythia and my one little quince. Even the roses show some growth activity, and in their case, it is too soon. But just.

In a small patch by the garage, in a sunny spot, there is a little yellow flowering plant that always blooms now, actually usually close to the time of croci, the first blooming bulbs, but I see no crocus yet. The yellow flowering plant is abloom. Someone at work gives me a name for the yellow flowering plant, but I forget it very quickly.

This is the downslide of winter. More bitter cold may come, yes, but the hard brace of winter is broken now, overthrown by the remembrance of warmer days already, and perhaps more to come before it is spring.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

With all the previous warm weather, I just couldn't stand it any longer and went out and worked in the garden, clearing out a couple beds. I knew it was a mistake--the debris providing much needed winter protection--but I couldn't help myself. Sure enough, the next day the thermometer dropped to 8 degrees here (not quite 4, but the coldes weather yet this winter. We had one other day that was 10 degrees back in December). And then yesterday we had about an inch or so of snow. Ah well. It was beautiful.

Don said...

Father Rob -- I am ready for spring and spring gardening work. I think our temps, warming up some, are taking a dive again this weekend. Alas.

Kathy said...

Is the little yellow plant Eranthis aka winter aconite? My second guess would be coltsfoot. Coltsfoot looks like dandelions but blooms earlier.