It Might as Well be Spring

On a day when the Pacific Northwest is being pounded with snow, ice and flooding, and Canada's prairie provinces are experiencing minus 30F temperatures, I should probably feel guilty talking about spring.Then again, it might give some hope to those having to put up with more typical winter weather.

More than four and twenty...the blackbirds are flocking together and feeding heavily as they prepare to migrate.

A few brave bulbs are sending up shoots to test the weather, so it appears a few of them survived the brutal summer. I was afraid that most had been baked.

Salad fixin's from a volunteer bibb letuce will be ready in a few days and there are a few others a week or two behind this one. If the weather stays mild, I'll have to begin planting early crops in about two weeks.

I forgot what this bush is called, but it's trying to bloom early. Looks sort of like a wild rose, but I don't remember planting anything like that.

But, there is a downside to the mild weather too, as the weeds are also making an early appearance...

Then there is the surest sign of spring. The purple martin scouts have already begun to arrive in South Texas, Louisiana and Florida! They are about a week earlier than normal.