Well the daffodils got the last laugh as to good ol’ Mother Nature. As brutal as our Winter has been, who would have thought the resilient daffodils would have the audacity to poke their heads up through the earth so early? This is the third Spring I’ve pounded the same pavement in the neighborhood, and so this morning I thought I’d check and see if the garden beds I routinely pass have yielded any Spring blooms yet. I figured that the bulbs buried deep in the dirt would produce sprouts much later when the ground finally started warming up. Yet, miraculously when I walked by and peered into the garden beds, which just shed their massive snow cover within the past week, I saw tiny light green sprouts, looking like chives or onion tips peeking up through the dirt. They were already a spindly three inches tall! I like watching the daffodils, tulips and crocuses emerge each Spring and while I patter on by daily, it is like watching a time-lapse film as they steadily reach for the sky, growing bigger until they eventually blossom. As soon as I returned home, I checked along the fence line thinking I’ll start monitoring Marge’s crocuses but the snow still was covering them up. Maybe next week. A few years ago my mom and I received an amaryllis plant for Christmas. It was our first amaryllis and I followed the directions to the letter as I hoped to ensure the plant and its annual blooms would be around for many years to come. I started watering the dirt as soon as the container was unwrapped, prompting the bulb to start growing immediately. But, for the longest time it was just a fancy pot with dark earth inside – then one day, I spied a tiny sprout. That sprout grew like a beanstalk and soon had to be tethered to a tall stick as the heavy blooms were top heavy and the plant kept bending in half. I took this picture above by propping the plant up against the kitchen cabinet. Sadly my mom was no longer here to witness the day-to-day progress and the beautiful blooms she had anticipated when we received the plant several months before. Since it bloomed on the first day of Spring I referred to it as “The Spring Thing”. Unfortunately, though I followed the directions for post-bloom care, it never sprouted, nor bloomed again … so much for the green thumb I thought I had. Before I ducked back into the house, I swiveled my head in the direction of the two big plum trees to determine the origin of the bird who sang so sweetly from the highest branch. Between slices of a brilliant blue sky, complete with long pointed rays of sun, I saw many buds lining the bare branches where that little songbird was perched. Ahh, that made it seem that Spring is now within reaching distance – T minus 2 days ‘til Spring arrives.