Just Purple Flowers

 

I am seeing purple flowers everywhere. Like striped crocuses.

Periwinkle.

A crocus with a visitor.

Glory-of-the-snow.

And rogue hyacinths.

Pretty! Click on the photos to enlarge.

It's Meteorological Spring!

 

A local witch hazel bush is covered with squiggly flowers now, despite the sudden return of frigid temperatures. My fingers nearly froze while I was taking pictures of it this morning! It's officially spring now, starting March 1 according to the reckoning of meteorologists. In another 17 days, we'll achieve astronomical spring at the equinox.

To recap -- the crocuses in my yard came out last week. Click to enlarge. 

Snowdrops appeared in early February.

And now this. Welcome, early bloomers!

Sights of the Season

 

It snowed! But that did not keep the witch hazel from blooming. Click to enlarge.

Then it snowed again.

The daffodils carried on, pushing toward spring.

Crocuses are built to withstand it.

Holly actually looks prettier with a shawl of snow and ice.

The snow was beautiful. It's practically all gone.

Yesterday these snowdrops were under a few inches of snow.

The Midpoint of Winter

 

We just passed the midpoint of winter, February 1, which is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Yay! If we were ancient Celts we would have just celebrated the holiday of Imbolc.

And if we were celebrating Imbolc, we might have checked around to see if any snakes had come out of their burrows to predict the duration of winter weather in accordance with the legend. 

Wait -- we still do that on Groundhog Day, but with groundhogs instead of snakes, right? Turns out that they are equally good at meteorological prognostication. The 2024 groundhog did not see it's shadow. That foretells a smooth path to an early spring. The National Weather Service is predicting the same thing. Let the gardening begin! 

Also, February 2 was Candlemas Day for Christians. The holiday occurs 40 days after Christmas and according to some marks the end of the Christmas season. One of the nice things about Candlemas is that there is a high probability of being able to eat pancakes or tamales.

These winter-blooming snowdrop flowers are also known as Candlemas flowers. They are winter-hardy early bloomers that will push up through snow and frozen ground to appear in time for Candlemas. Mine are always on time. Click to enlarge.

Also note that there are crocuses blooming in my yard right now. Local sunset will be at 5:23 today and 5:24 tomorrow.

So, even though it may have seemed like an uneventful week, it was not.

Just Crocus Flowers

 

And a honeybee collecting crocus pollen. Click to enlarge.

"And time remembered is grief forgotten 

And  frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins."

Algernon Charles Swinburne
 

Just Crocuses

Just crocus flowers today.

Click to enlarge.

And this quote from David Steindl-Rast."A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace."