Stretching Awakening and Dreaming

Nature is stretching and awakening.  Plants have been dormant these last few months, as snow covered the ground, and chill winds blew.  Some days it seemed that spring would never come.

Flowers and green were a distant memory, even as the sun set earlier and earlier, and clouds covered the sky day after day.

But then the sunrises got earlier and earlier.  The birds started to sing.  We saw our first robin.  This week, we've seen our first crocuses on exercise walks.

We aren't out of the possibility of snow yet.  Maybe tomorrow (a storm is coming), but I am hoping we are done.

Today, it's in the 60's, the birds are singing and flying, the native trees are starting to bloom.  Garlic from years ago that reseeded is coming up in my yard.

My white Lenten Rose is blooming.

I have my first yard wildflower blooming - henbit.

Some of my perennials are coming back   Two "extra winter" hardy pansies we planted last fall have survived the winter, and are putting on growth.

We took an inventory of outdoor plants that made it inside, and those that didn't make it   Our oldest rosemary (rosemaries have to be overwintered in our zone 5 climate, an it can be hard to keep them indoors) didn't make it, but I have two hanging baskets of geraniums that did.  Soon, I'll be able to put them outside on sunny days (which this isn't.)

Alas, our April Rose camilla, the plant we hoped we could grow outside its zone, is ailing.

On a brighter side, our primroses are coming up. 

We have leaves from last year (left there to protect some of our plantings) and it's just about time to remove them.  

An early daffodil has a bud.  Many others haven't broken ground, but they will.  We have a tulip starting to come up.

It's nice to dream of the cold hardy greens we will soon plant in a raised bed (most of our gardening is done in a community garden plot, which won't be opened until sometime in May.)

So, in the midst of all this - a bird pooped on me.

I didn't mind - much.  My clothes are machine washable and Mr. or Ms. Bird just missed my laptop.

But it is a wonderful thing to know that I survived another upstate New York winter - one not quite as harsh as some, but they do get harder and harder.

Oh, when spring comes, it feels so good.  April is almost here.

Join me, starting Monday, for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme this year is Finding America Through Photos. 

I hope you will join me and over a thousand other bloggers, as we celebrate renewal.  And hope.