We Interrupted the Spring Preview Program to Bring

 Winter!. It finally arrived here on March 14 with the first measurable snow for the winter season.
I thought I might give you a before, during and after to our brush with winter.

 On March 9 the forsythia was out in bloom and branches cut to bring inside needed no forcing.

 Daffodils had begun to bloom in various locations in my garden. This bunch was gathered to bring indoors on March 10 because the weather forecast was for below freezing for several days.

 The weather forecasters were whipping us all into a frenzy with seemingly days of reporting that the storm was on its way and would bring us anywhere from 8" to 14" of snow. Here it was finally beginning to fall around sundown on Monday March 13.

 In preparing for the big storm I felt so sorry for my cherry trees that looked as though they were about to burst forth into full spring bloom. The low temperatures would not be kind to them. I decided to cut a small branch and bring it inside to see if it could be "forced" as forsythia regularly is. As you can see, Tuesday morning required  the snow shoveling crew. In reality we got only about 3" of snow but it was wet, heavy and nasty to shovel. That one little branch from the cherry tree gave us a glimpse of spring and kept our spirits up.

 Once the falling snow stopped I open windows or doors and stepped briefly out to record a few images.

 I had picked daffodils from this location only five days previous.

 As you can see spring had been well on its way and the under-story plants in the woods were already wearing their new green leaves.

 The twig picked in bud on the 13th had opened up to the white blooms by the 17th.

 And, by the 20th that same branch had taken on the mature pink hue.

 Today, the 22nd, is a bright, sunny, blustery day. Those daffodils are once more blooming.

 The cherry tree out front finally had blossoms open up this morning. But as you can see some of the buds have been impacted by the cold weather and will likely not bloom at all.

Nature does give us hope though. Today I found the first buds on the bluebells.You can see that the leaves have been somewhat burnt of the cold winds but the buds are there despite that.

Since the Spring Equinox was this past Monday, March 20 I do so hope we have only spring ahead of us. I was amused to read someone's line wondering if March came in like a lion and out like a lamb or if it was the other way round. Instead, the writer commented, March is more like a kangaroo this year!