Already Waiting for Spring

 

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for spring.The days have been getting shorter and darker, I'm still in a state of continual re-adjustment to the time change and suddenly it's cold. But tell that to the above primroses. These flowers are usually a tell-tale sign that spring has arrived; these crazy plants seem to bloom all year long. It's November, it's 23 degrees over night and they're like, "Perfect weather!" The kicker is that they came from Stop and Shop or Shop Rite- yes, I guess the variety is Super Market Mix. I buy them (marked down, of course!) in February so as to have color in the house and then plant them outdoors when spring finally arrives. Originally I thought we'd get a season's flowers and then they'd die but boy did I get a tremendous surprise when they came back, year after year. Truly perennial! 

I've got quite a few of them now. Last year, they were blooming in the snow so go figure: they must be some new mutant variety dreamed up in some horticulturist's perverse lab. But they're pretty and cheap so you gotta love them!

Okay but the main reason for my post is that I finally planted all the bulbs I bought:

As I've said before, bulbs are great; if you plant them and if they don't come up, no big deal! No one knows you wasted your time and money on them... not like some fancy-pants, over-priced perennial that looks swell at the nursery but immediately withers and dies when installed in your garden. So I planned on obtaining some bulbs. I have a spot where I plant tulips every year and then yank them to plant annuals. (Most tulips being not-too-perennial but soooooo lovely!) While bob and I were in Vermont recently, switching out his remarkable sculptures, I requested that we visit the Bennington Home Depot to see if they had marked down bulbs. Yes they did! And good colors! So for 50% off, I got Pink Impression and a beautiful mix called "Pride" (purples and pinks and reds). Also a bag of deep blue hyacinths for the Blue Garden.

I didn't stop there, however. Enthused by my luck and lured by the sales from nurseries that filled up my email in-box, I ordered petite miniature daffodils (Jack Sprite and Tete-a-Tete) and aliums (Bulgaricum and Christophii) and more tulips! Just you wait 'til next spring! Our gardens are going to be jumping! (*1)

(*1) I was fortunate that I encountered several warm sunny days to stagger around our vast estate, pushing a wheel barrow full of assorted bulbs, looking for spots to tuck them all in. It wouldn't have been fun had it been as cold as it was this morning!

Time Change

I've been blogging about our move to the BauHaus Chicken Coop for a little over a year now. We really have done an awful lot, but there are all kinds of annoying things to administer to- like the stupid, unattractive and useless towel rack on the downstairs bathroom door. (As in hang a towel up and wait for it to hit the floor. The rack looks like it came out of a 1960's car; chrome and oddly shaped. And there's this oozy blob of old glue seeping out of one end... I won't even photograph it! ) We're making an entirely new list...
But outside looks pretty swell. The pond (above) has been entertaining ducks and I sawed off a bit of the elder tree that had been cracked in that freaky snow storm of last October. Just straightening things up a bit. Bob has done a dynamite job down by the stream, clearing away old piles of sticks and making the swampy area look much more pleasant and festive. There is even skunk cabbage appearing. And I just had a tick crawling on my hand. Must be spring!
Now that it's lighter outside later, it is a great motivator. I can come home and have time- and daylight- for projects or just fooling around with The Dog. I'm going to de-sod the strip by the back of the house so we can continue to mulch with white quartz rocks and make a border all the way around. that's on the table for this afternoon. I don't want to be inside as its so warm and sunny but I do want to get some work done in my studio.

C-C-C-limate Ch-Ch-Changes

I'm surprised that we have any horse left! Because the weather has turned warmer (well,  maybe not tonight but it is supposed to up to 60 degreess by Wednesday!) Crispin started to shed his impressive winter coat- with a vengence. I began to casually curry him on Sunday and 45 minutes later, I was still coming up with clumps like the one above. I left wads of horse hair around for birds to use as nest making materials. I am certain that Crispin enjoyed getting a lengthy grooming session as I'll bet all that departing fur is itchy. He was less crabby for a little while.
Has anyone else noticed that there are a great deal of spring birds singing already? We even have ducks on our mini-pond. Last year, they had to be satisfied with swimming on the stream as the pond was frozen solid and under snow. And they're back so early!
On a particularly warm day a few weeks back, I spied a snake on the dirt road. Talk about bad luck! Not only does the snake come out on a 60 degree February day, but then he gets run over by one of the two or three cars that travel down that road on a typical day. I returned the next day, armed with my camera, but the snake was long gone. No doubt someone else's lunch.
I had to go back and read my several previous blog entries as I couldn't remember if I posted about the snake or not. I've told a few friends the snake anecdote and let's face it; the weather this winter has been super or scary depending on which side of the bed you wake up on. A friend reported on blooming crocuses and we've heard stories of all kinds of other anomolous spring appearances. I saw a forsythia bush blooming on the way to my mother's house. I'm glad to embrace an early spring (despite groundhog prognostications) but I'll be the first to admit that it also alarms me that everything is a month or so too soon.
And then a friend reminded me that they're changing the time this weekend. Am I crazy? Didn't that used to happen a month later too???