Plum Blossoms

In spite of lots of rain and grey days and gale force winds this morning, spring is insisting on arriving. These are always the first fruit blossoms every year. They are sprouts from the rootstock of the old egg plum tree in the background. We probably should prune them out but we keep expecting the egg plum to die as it is over 100 years old and anyway the little tiny delicate white blossoms are so special in the early spring. They never produce any fruit, maybe they never would, but blooming this early guarantees that they won't get pollinated. It's way to cold and wet for any self respecting pollinator.

Snowdrops

Just a few days ago there was no sign of the snowdrops under the big birch tree. Then a day of sun and by afternoon there they were. Just in time for the beginning of spring at Imbolc or Candlemas on February 2, halfway between the solstice and the equinox. Any day now the seed orders will start arriving. And then we're off again into a new season.

It was almost warm today. I went out and weeded the perennial cut flower beds and got wonderfully muddy. It felt so good to work in the dirt. All around the flowers are sure it is finally spring. There's a first little daffodil, one of the February Golds, almost out.
And the forsythia branches are laced with yellow buds and one or two flowers already out. By tomorrow there will be lots of them.
And everywhere crocuses are in bloom. The Varied Thrushes are starting to sing in the mornings and the female red winged blackbirds showed up yesterday. The males have been here since January but the ladies are late this year.

Little Plants

Spring is here. The greenhouse and cold frames are full of little plants. Above are several flats of lettuces,
and here a cart full of onion seedlings on their way to the hoophouse for a bit of further hardening off before being planted out. Our seedlings go from the greenhouse to the cold frames to the hoophouse and then out into the open. Every day we are planting more and more things. Today I planted 3 flats of statice and Joel planted cabbage and leeks. We're off to a great start.

Spring

I like to follow the old Celtic calendar where spring starts on what we here call Groundhog's Day and in England is Candelmas. It is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It makes a lot of sense to me for the seasons to begin between the solstices and the equinoxes because that way the longest day of the year is actually in the middle of summer and the shortest in the middle of winter: Mid summer and Midwinter. And it is about now that the light starts to noticeably change. The angle of the sun is higher, the days noticeably longer. The birds know this, as do the snowdrops and early aconites, violets, and anemones and the pussywillows. Very soon now we will start the first flats of lettuce in the greenhouse. Joel has been out spading up the beds for the earliest platings. Our soil is heavy and wet and trying to use any kind of machine early in the season creates nothing but mud. It is possible to spade up soil far to wet to rototill.

Inside I've been winding skeins of Chelsea Silk yarn into balls to knit into hats for the upcoming season. I love this yarn. It is 65% silk and 35 % yarn. It's been discontinued for years but I still pick up bits and pieces on places like ebay. One of these days the supply will dry up and I will either retire from hat making or find another favorite yarn.

I spent the first three days of the week subbing for one of the English teachers at the Friday Harbor High School. I had three really nice groups of kids so I really enjoyed the days.