first day of spring

The weather folk are excited. It is not supposed to snow until 1:00 am tonight, but all they could talk about this morning was the several inches of snow that will fall tonight and tomorrow. I assume that we will get through it.

This morning, Franklin and I inspected the garden. There is enough to see now, to lure me out of the house. Of course, I look every morning, but that is more out of habit -- the last weeks of winter, I speculate about what could be happening down below the dirt, and beneath the swelling bark of roses or shrubs.

The sedum has been up for some time, impatient I think, given that its flowers won't bloom until autumn. The ornamental alium is always up early, as are muscari or grape hyacinth. The day lilies have been up three inches or so for some time. Daffodils are up to about six to eight inches, and today there are a few buds beginning to open. The surviving tulips (always an apt description for those returning in Indiana, where the heavy moisture in the soil with waves of flooding, thawing, and freezing does hard things to them)are all starting to wave above the soil. The chives (another alium member) are about two to three inches.

In the townlet, some forsythia are blooming, and in one of my more modest plants put in a too shady spot, I've got a few yellow snippets opening. The other forsythia, wild and willowy, are almost there, and I anticipate their presence. There are a small clumps of croci at the base of my sweetgum, a perfect place for them since the voles can't get to them there, and the squirrels seem to ignore them -- these tiny purple and yellow blooms are worthy even if not in patches significant enough to disturb the overall lack of major color in the garden.

A few weeds are showing up, and now is the perfect time (barring a blizzard, which is what one thinks is about to happen based on the weather folk on tv)to weed. Soft ground, not much activity, easy to spot.