There is much hopeful talk of spring these days. We are all longing for relief from the cold of winter and looking forward to the warmer days of spring.
But according to meteorologists, spring is already here. Meteorologic spring, that is. To make weather data easier to compare, meteorologists use the dates of March 1 to May 30 every year to define spring. Astronomical spring is the day of the year when the spring equinox occurs. That varies because of slight variations in the earth's orbit. Astronomical spring is the one that shows up on our calendars and occurs sometime in the middle of March. This year, spring starts on March 20 and ends on June 21.
Spring is a transition season, and it often struggles to decide whether to cling to winter or race forward to summer. Our weather has certainly had its ups and downs recently. Last week, temperatures reached the low 60s before plunging back down into the teens a few days later. Today, temperatures are in the 50s, with howling winds and rain. However, slowly but surely, spring is starting to show itself.
Here's what spring looks like at my house this week. The showy spring flowers are yet to come, but a few things are peeking up from the dirt.
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| Daffodils. These are in a warm spot. Other beds show no signs of their daffodils yet. |
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| Daylilies. These are along the same warm wall as the daffodils above. |
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| Iris |
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| The birds have been singing for a few weeks now. This box has a bluebird nest, or possibly two nests, with one on top of the other. |
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| Surprise lily. The leaves come up in the spring, and flowers come up in early August. |
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| Swelling lilac buds. |
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| We have snowdrops in this corner bed, but there are no signs of them yet. However, there's a limb that came down from the winds. |
As you may have noticed, we have a lot of cleanup to do in the beds. That and a bunch of pruning. And lawn seeding. And planting. And ... It's about to get busy here outside. As soon as spring comes. :)
