by early spring
Weather is on everyone’s mind these days. Not long ago I wrote about the Westcoast’s unusually long spell of snow and cold, followed by extremely heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides (including a buried house and loss of a life, sadly). The temperatures have climbed, fooling the gardens into thinking it’s spring.
This afternoon, despite my flu/cold, I was tempted outdoors for a little while by our first sunshine in a while and a temperature of 14C (57F). I poked around the garden, noticing many little signs of life. The snowdrops are always the first to come up even through the snow, but I was amazed to already see a few early crocuses and a hellebore in bloom. The magnolia trees have fat flower buds, spring bulbs are sending up leaves and some of the shrubs have green leaf buds – my mother called these in Finnish hiirenkorvat or mouse ears.
January 25, 2005 in Being an Artist, Photography by Marja-Leena
I can’t believe it! You have spring; we have a deep layer of snow. Not fair, he says, not fair! 🙂
Vancouverites can be notorious for gloating this time of year, a kind of competition with Toronto! Suffering all this rain has to have some benefits, eh? Sometimes we do get one or two more dumps of snow and many frosty nights to remind us that it is still officially winter. Keep warm, Tom!
Echoing Tom’s lament! I drove today in some of the worst conditions all winter – I can’t believe you’ve got these flowers in your garden already but in spite of my envy they made me gasp with happiness and remembrance of spring.
How lovely to see the hellebores. These early flowers have extra beauty in their hopeful promise of Spring. Lovely post, Marja-Leena, I hope your cold is on the wane.
I’m really enjoying delving into the “Peaceful Societies” site, by the way. Another source of hope.