Springtime

It is spring.  The calender says so, but more important than that, the world around me is saying so.  Quite loudly, in some cases.  The Northern Flickers started screaming their territorial call (the second one down here, if you want to take a listen) two weeks ago, I noticed.  One cannot really help but notice them.  It is pretty much an incessant shrieking.  I saw my first spring flowers last week on my walk home from work.  Yellow ones of an unknown variety, followed by lovely purple crocuses the next day.  The garlic greens have broken through their winter blanket of leaves.  The tulips, bleeding heart, and irises are up, but without any flower buds yet.  The fruit trees and driveway hedge are budding and leafing out.  It was a gloriously nice weekend and so we spent much of it outdoors.  Ginger is taking supervised visits outside and is just in love with it.  The sights, smells, tastes....she is a happy kitty.  None of us wanted to be inside this weekend!  She ate grass and rolled contentedly in the dirt while we planted some peas, greens, and early potatoes.  It is spring, glorious, glorious spring.

Pea planting.

Ginger scouting the yard from the tree well of one of our apple trees.

A garden overview.

Crocuses.

(I wrote this post on Tuesday, but didn't have the photos I wanted to go along with the text.  Today, Wednesday, we awoke to snow.  So, it IS spring, but it is also still springtime in Montana.  Of course, by the time of my writing, the snow is almost completely gone again.)

A garden overview.

Garlic sprouts in the snow.

Snow on the driveway hedge.