What a difference a day makes

When I decided it was time to take a break from work and go out for a walk around the yard yesterday afternoon, Tigger came bounding gleefully across the yard burbling excitedly. Perhaps he thought that we'd go inspect the catmint again like we did on Tuesday, or maybe he was just glad to get back into his role as chief gardening assistant, feline division. Tigger's a senior feline, twelve years old now, but warm sunny days make him very blissful. Catnip, or catmint as a last resort, makes him even more blissful, but we're still a few weeks from any significant amount.

We've now had 4, count them, FOUR days of mild, fine weather. The glacier is now completely vanquished from the yard and garden, although there's still a bit of dirty residual snow in the ditches and along the pasture edge. On Tuesday afternoon, I photographed these dear little crocus, barely out of the ground and showing off their colours...

They must have been the advance scouting party, because today they were joined by quite a few more, all basking in the sun's gentle smile. I even saw a bee--I think it was a honeybee, though it might have been a bee-mimic fly; I couldn't get close enough to get a photo.


A few feet away, another host of crocus stretched forth to sing their song of joy to spring.


Having pulled the mulch away from pretty well everything that I did protect, I'm amazed at how far along some things are. This euphorbia is a polychroma cultivar, the variegated 'Lacey'. I guess there are no worries about its hardiness here in my garden.


Little colonies of snowdrops are now emerging to warm my heart too. I know, I know...some of you had snowdrops MONTHS ago. But we didn't. And I simply love these perfect little plants, so fresh and clean looking. It took them a few years, but now that they've well established, they're starting to multiply in earnest.


We have single snowdrops too, as I showed in the last post. I can never decide which I like better. Each has its own particular charms, of course. The thing about the doubles is that you really do have to flip their little heads up to admire their petticoats of petals, where the singles just stand tall and elegant like little white tuxedos.


I've decided that Sedum 'Angelina' is definitely a star in all seasons. Aren't the colours in it almost undescribably lovely? They remind me of the heaths and heathers that turn such flamboyant colours. Beside 'Angelina' is another sedum, a variegated species the name of which escapes me right now, but both are quite happy. And as with the rock garden at NSAC, these little bursts of iridescence cause me to slow down and enjoy each little gift, before the song of spring becomes more of a full orchestration.

One last happy observation; the ice is gone from the pond, which means we should be hearing the green frogs in a few days, if the warm trend continues. And that will be just fine with me.

I know there are messy days yet to come, but we'll take each day that comes like this as a real gift.