Westover Blooms after the Flood

For all the times we had one or two feet of snow on the ground on March 16....

For all the times we sat and stared at the Weather Channel and saw other people getting spring, but not us....

For the time (I think it was March 19 of last year) we were on the road in Southeast Virginia, saw a church sign announcing "Spring is God's Postcard" and thought our postcard had been Returned to Sender, Address Unknown...

For all the misery the weather caused upstate NY last year, including towns flooded and destroyed by Hurricane (well, maybe by then Tropical Storm) Irene and our area flooded by Tropical Storm Lee following in Irene's wake, including a lot of my neighborhood, Westover (near Johnson City, NY), we've been given a gift.  Along with much of the Northeast, we have been given the gift of early spring, some plants coming out a month ahead of schedule.

Is all forgiven?

No.  You can't forgive the weather, because there is no malice. The weather acts as it will. But sometimes, after a flood, the sun finally comes out and shines a rainbow down.

This year our spring postcard was delivered early.  Late this afternoon I took a walk around Westover and found this...

A crocus....

Yellow daffodils planted in the front of our Y, which had flooded in September (and is just about back to normal now after cleaning up from that and a fire the following month....)

...more crocuses...

..a bush buds out

And, at my house, I found my crocuses (about the last in the neighborhood!) had finally opened.

Now - we must hold our breath.  Because weather can be fickle.  It's easy to forget it is still winter.

And then what?

But in the meantime, I an drinking in every drop of spring.