...it's really, really Spring!
There've been small signs of Spring for several weeks, but for me it's all about the rhubarb! When I see this, I am assured that Spring is fully here! It's not quite ready to gather, but given a week or two I'll be gathering, canning, freezing, cooking with it, fermenting, etc.
To keep me busy in the meantime, I'll forage for Spring mushrooms, ramps, fiddle head ferns, sorrel, nettles, miner's lettuce, dandelion greens, and more. All these things are great Springtime tonic foods and "eats". Just remember...nettles must either be dried, cooked, or steeped (as in tea) to tame their sting!
Nights are in the 40's, another sure sign of of the Season. Days are in the high 50's, 60's, and later this week we'll hit 70-degrees. Last week, I was able to go out and do a little weeding in my herb gardens beneath the apple topiaries, and prune the plants I've added to the condo's landscaping that made it through the Winter which was all of them!
My wee pruning and sprucing up fest took all of 20 minutes, much better than the hours each day I used to spend tending the gardens around the Cottage.
These white crocus are some of the earliest bulbs to come up in the gardens around the commons.
Sunny yellow crocus are just past their prime. Deer don't bother them or the daffodils, but have nipped all the tulips down. Drats!
Around town the bright yellow forsythia are in bloom everywhere!
Harbinger of early Spring - forsythia
After a Winter of quiet cocooning (so wonderfully peaceful), I'm ready to play at a wee bit of gardening and get into the woods to forage and see all the wildflowers that are beginning to bloom. Ahhh...Springtime!
* * *
Daughter of light! thy fairy step
Steals softly over vale and plain,
And with thy bright and joyous smile,
Beauty and life awake again.
~Mary Ann H. Dodd Shutts (1813–1878), "Spring"
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