This Is Spring....?

The First Crocuses I have Seen This Year

I have been taking long walks around town. I'm a terrible voyeur, I love to look at other people's gardens. Bellingham is a great gardening city - almost everyone has some kind of garden, even if it's just a wooden box on the planting strip. In another post I'll share pictures and talk a little about Bellingham as a great place to be an "Urban Homesteader."

There are definite signs of spring around, if you look closely. Crocuses and snowdrops are up, at least in the sunniest areas, and daffodils will not be far behind. I saw a forsythia bush in what I could almost call full bloom, with just a little bit of wishful squinting. Pussy willows have passed the green fuzzy stage and are into the creepy green caterpillar stage.

If the bulbs and trees have got the message that the Earth has tilted back towards the sun ever so slightly, however, the weather hasn't. We have yet to break fifty degrees this year, and nighttime temperatures are below freezing more often than not. February's average temperature was a full 10 degrees below the thirty-year norm. I did plant some radishes in the greenhouse, and they sprouted, but then a hard frost killed them. Radishes! The sun has made a few anemic appearances, but mostly, this is what Spring looks like around here: