The Firsts of Spring

March 20 (yesterday) is the spring equinox. It is traditional that people watch out for the first signs of spring. So here are a few...

 The first robin of spring 2018.

 The first daffodils of spring. And in the background the netting to keep the deer away from the first azalea buds of spring.

 The plum tree in spring.

 The Lenten Rose has finally had it's first blooms open. Can you see them?

 The first shoveling of spring.

 The first glimpse of color in my blue garden.

 The first mint of spring...growing in the crack between the concrete garage floor and the driveway asphalt.

 The river birch bark in spring.

 The Green Man laughing at the spring thoughts. Just two days ago I saw two bluebirds investigating the bluebird house. I think they rejected it.

Two days ago I went outside to see if I could find the first daffodil bloom of spring (not seeing it are you?). Instead I found this squirrel who was after a good meal of discarded seed from the birdfeeder.
"Maybe if I hide under here she won't see me!"

So I'm sure you get the picture of spring so far. And now I better go before we have the first power outage of spring.  I need my first quilt project completion of spring and I can only do that if the electricity stays on.

Early March in the Garden

 As you might have heard we had a "little" wind event here over the first few days of March. It absolutely roared in like a lion. We woke up on Friday to no electricity and the sight of this major maple down in the back yard. The tree had a triple trunk arrangement. This was the trunk that faced into our garden and had the only branch low enough to take lovely Fall photographs of.

The winds howled and roared all day with gusts up as high as 70mph/114kph. I did not want to venture out too far but I did find this pretty (or is it brooding?) sunset on Friday.

The hellebore, variously known as the Christmas Rose or the Lenten Rose is very late to bloom this year. Some years it is out around Christmas but this week, here we are at the third week of Lent and still no blooms have opened.

The tree came down and hit the small lantern on the way. I thought it had pushed it down into the mulch but alas, this morning, I discover it entirely broke off two of the four legs.

The bluebells have just begun to break through the ground.

 Fortunately the pagoda missed being hit. As you can see in the background I have daffodils up but have yet to see the first bloom.

 We were without electricity for 33 hours and were very relieved to get it back late morning Saturday. Dinner time called for comfort food and we had a roast chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes and oven-roasted vegetables. Many other families in our area had the power outage last into five days.

 The maple was the most dramatic damage but we had several other trees blown over also. Some, like this one, were likely already dead but got caught up in the tree canopy and did not fall far. The suet feeder, you might notice, is empty. Some critter decided it needed the suet all to itself and after managing to get the feeder open and make off with the suet cake twice in a five day period I have temporarily given up.

 Today the crew came with their chainsaws and truck and in very short order that maple and the assorted cedars were sawn up and taken away. I measured it last night and that piece was about 50 foot from top to bottom.

 The ornamental plum tree is always the first to bloom in the early spring in my garden. Now it is out I am holding my breath that we don't get a hard frost which turns the pretty pink blooms to a most unattractive brown.

Goodbye maple tree - it looks like you had an interesting life. You will be missed.