At last!

The sun is shining and we are enjoying our second consecutive 70-degree day since October. It didn't warm up gradually - remember we had snow and cold right through Wednesday. So this is a Big Deal, and people are relishing the little things...working next to an open window, sitting outside with an iced tea, putting away the down coats and fur-lined boots.

The only green in the landscape is evergreens, but in our hearts, there is light and warmth and rejoicing, and to me it feels a lot like this image.

And speaking of "At Last," here is a favorite version by the late Eva Cassidy.

Turning point

Spring is coming, and it took another late-April snow storm to make me believe it.

On Tuesday, for the second time in a week and third time this month, we woke up to a snow-covered landscape. Unlike previous gloomy grey snowy days, this time the sun came up and transformed everything into a breathtakingly brilliant Winter Wonderland. 

I grabbed a camera, but we had some errands to run. By the time we were in Como Park, I looked through the lens and saw...melting. The trees and shrubs were rapidly losing their lacy outlines. As we got home, the tree shown here was shedding little clumps of snow that plop-plop-plopped as they hit the ground. Several plopped onto my head, and as they trickled down my forehead I somehow knew that winter was saying goodbye.

Yesterday we made it into the 50s. They tell us it will be in the 70s this weekend. And in our backyard, a small clump of tulips has just broken through the surface of the ground.

Spring is on the way!

Make-Believe Spring

Sniffing flowers left her with an orange nose!

Two weeks ago we decided to cheer ourselves up by visiting the spring flower show at the conservatory in St. Paul's Como Park. It was a good decision. Great, even.

The minute we entered the Visitors Center and turned toward the conservatory, we could smell the sweet hyacinth, tulips, lilies, and other lovely blossoms. The air was warm and moist and on this day sun poured through the glass walls and ceiling of the sunken garden area where this show was installed. A perfect antidote to the pent-up frustration of Minnesotans tired of an over-long winter.

Pink callas, a favorite of mine

As I write this, by the way, it is 34 degrees F and sleeting. The weather people say we won't see 50 degrees for another week or ten days. The only thing more depressing than the weather is the constant complaining about the weather everywhere you go. But on this sunny day in early April, we enjoyed spring temps and colors to our hearts' content.

Desperately seeking spring

What happened to spring? Minnesotans want to know, and you can't really blame us.

The photos on this page were taken on March 24 last year. Thanks to a record-setting warm March, crocuses and bleeding hearts were emerging by St. Patrick's Day and azaleas were leafing out with abandon. By contrast, March 2013 has been colder than normal. We still have snow on the roof, a foot or two of gritty snow slowly melting all across the yard, and absolutely no signs of emerging plant life.

Minnesotans don't expect great weather to last, or to repeat itself. A typical reaction to a mild winter: "We'll pay the price next year." Still, life conspires to get our hopes up about spring. For starters, it seems that we naturally crave spring's promise of warmth, new beginnings, the upswing in the cycle of life. But there are plenty of other prompts.

Let's start with Punxatawney Phil and those old guys in top hats who speak of six more weeks of winter as if that were a worst-case scenario. We know better than to believe such a thing (2012 notwithstanding), but the annual Groundhog's Day chatter gets us thinking spring months too early.

The beginning of Daylight Savings Time seems another harbinger of spring. Frankly, it's always a pleasant surprise, in those those first few days after turning our clocks ahead, to find that it's still light at 5:30 p.m. It reminds us of the promise of our long summer evenings, when it stays light until 9:30. But those evenings are still far off...and more so since DST begins weeks earlier than it used to.

Then there's the official "first day of spring," the vernal equinox. I seem to recall that it was snowing and about 20 degrees this year.

Growing up, I always equated Easter with spring, and with wearing a spring outfit to church. Year after year, I had to cover my new pink dress with my winter coat, and leave the cute straw hat at home. This year we've been told to expect snow flurries Saturday night, and Sunday highs in the 30s with gusty winds.

Okay, so none of those events can be counted on to get spring underway. Certainly the opening day of major league baseball will do it, no? No. The Minnesota Twins are due to play their opener at home, in an open-air stadium, with a predicted high of 33 degrees and continued strong winds. Brrr.

So with promises and false hopes all around us, there's nothing to do but create spring for ourselves. Starting with a springtime header made up of last year's photos. 

***

Meanwhile, speaking of Easter, I'm hooked on the annual St. Paul Pioneer Press Peeps contest, which draws an amazing array of creative and elaborate entries. Entering is on my bucket list.

This year, just for fun, I invited ViMae to create a scene with me. She came up with a Christmas wedding, prompted by a scrap of wrapping paper we used for a carpet. The wedding party is entering as couples, plus one tiny flower girl. The bride and her attendants carry red roses and the groom wears a red boutonniere. I'm kinda hoping this is the start of a winning tradition.

Hopeful signs of spring

Last year I posted a photo of snowdrops on March 16. It's taken longer this year, but here they come. We especially admire the shoot that's pushing up right through some ice. The chives have started growing again, too. Makes me think spring really will come.

Sights and sounds of spring

From the time I was a little girl, I've loved lying in bed in the morning with the window open, taking in the world through my ears. In the past few days I've been hearing the songs of cardinals and mourning doves along with various other chirping and squawking. And neighbor kids going down the sidewalk on roller skates and tiny bicycles with training wheels.

We've had an unusually warm spring thus far. I hope we have a temperate summer, because I hate closing the windows to run air conditioning. But in the spirit of "watch out what you wish for" I hasten to send a message out into the ether-verse that I also don't want to have to wear my winter jacket to the 4th of July baseball game!

This picture was the first photo I took with my first digital camera in 2003. My film camera had broken, and suddenly a family of cardinals was hanging out in our yard. I've never yet gotten a great cardinal photo, but I'm not giving up!

Snowdrops...and snow mold

First flowers of the season are always the snowdrops. They peek up while there is still snow on the ground. Our recent warm days melted all the snow but left a bumper crop of snow mold (upper right, looks kinda like insect webs).