Out and About in the Early Spring

My dear BH always says that in Virginia the first day of spring is really March 1 and while I am a little pickier about the angle of the sun, this year the temperatures are on his side. So many warm days, so few cold ones, have pushed the trees into overdrive. Not only were the daffodils blooming in February, the forest line turning rosy, but look at this poplar tree caught turning green on Sunday March the 10! 

This is my harbinger tree - the one I always gauge when 'real' spring has arrived. When it leafs out, it's officially springtime. 

There's still plenty of spring to come, of course. There are even oak and beech trees that have to shed their leaves to make room for the new ones. But green is pushing it's fingers along the edges of the roads, the misty tops of the garden. 

Saturday, we all went strolling around the farm, assessing things, admiring the work of Mark the logger, who dragged the hurricane downed trees out of the fields, preparatory to hauling them away. I'll be glad to see them go - the hole they leave in the woods is bad enough, but looking at their skeletal waste as they rot away against the edge of the woods is just awful. We already cut 5 cords of firewood out of them - glad to see these go.  

Of course, not before everyone gets the chance to climb all over them. 

Sunday I took the dogs on a late afternoon stroll and was surprised to see so many peach trees blooming! These are little spreaders, not trees I've planted. I guess the squirrels take them off and plant them, because I have dozens of these all around the house. They produce little tiny peaches, usually not very sweet - just the thing for hungry critters. And masses of beautiful pink blossoms.

And now, with with Mercury retrograde this northern spring 2012, from March 12 to April 5, let us all ask the spirits to look after our cars, our computers, our pens and our mouths, and anything else that could move us from one place to another. Happy Monday.