Today is the first day of Spring, but it doesn’t feel that way. Perhaps because yesterday looked like this:
Our local traffic reporter made me laugh when she tweeted “DEAR MOTHER NATURE: You have ONE day to stop the shenanigans. I will throw orange barrels at you if you don’t stop.” Unfortunately Mother Nature isn’t listening to any of us. By next Tuesday our high is supposed to be back down to 31 degrees. That’s 16 degrees below normal.
I’ve sowed 18 flats of plants so far and about three-quarters of them have sprouted. I’m just over the halfway point in my seed sowing. I’m still sowing all my plants a week or two later than normal because I just don’t see any significant warm-ups in sight.
There are signs of spring if you know where to look. The chipmunks have popped out of their little dens and are fighting over seeds under the feeders. And some of my deciduous shrubs have tiny swelling buds.
But there are also signs of Winter’s brutality. Out my front window I have an unobstructed view of four houses across the street. All of them have several evergreens planted under their windows or near their front doors. Nearly every single one of those bushes looks completely dead. It’s a shocking sight. We have one Yew in our front yard and many, many arborvitaes in our backyard, and thankfully all of them are still green.
Once the snow finally melts and we get some warmer temperatures we may discover those evergreens weren’t Winter’s only victims.