Signs of Spring

It's a sunny day here in Northeast Ohio so I had a wander around the yard and my favorite park looking for signs of spring.  

I had to push back some leaf litter to get the full view of these charming crocus -- love that yellow cup at the base of each flower!  I'll have to mark this clump and dig it up for separating later this spring -- spread that loveliness around a bit! 

The hellebore feel late but they are coming along and should be in full bloom in another week!

Love snowdrops and have been working for years to plant them all over my gardens -- think this clump might get spread around later this spring, too.

These two iris blooms -- look how determined they are to push through the leaf litter!?!

That pop of color makes me smile!

The pond is already growing algae and looking pretty murky but I'll leave it that way in hopes that an American toad will use it again this year for a breeding ground and tadpole nursery.

I'm very pleased to see these little red shoots -- it means the peonies I transplanted at the wrong time of the year last summer came through the winter!

 I groomed my raised planting trough and planted peas in there -- fingers crossed that they will love it and I'll have fresh peas by the end of May!!

I also set out the straw bales rescued from the trash pickup after Halloween -- they have been fertilized and the April rains will start the rotting process that makes them a good place to plant stuff!!

Curious?  Google "straw bale gardening", because it's a "thing"!

I even hung laundry outside -- it will take all day to dry but ohhhh, the scent when I bring them inside!!

I did a bit of very early plant shopping while visiting family in southeastern Pennsylvania over the weekend and this tray followed me home -- for now, they will just be outside on mild sunny days, but soon, soon -- real dirt!

I'm slowly redecorating my dining room and hallways so the stitching is slow, but I did finish assembling this plus quilt.  The strips were cut 4 1/2" wide and come from a big ugly pile of unwanted solids -- all the greens and blues.

Let me tell you, they look lots better in this quilt than they did on the cutting table!

All of them date from the 1980's and have a gray cast.

I wish I had taken a picture before the cutting started.

It is twin size and will be finished into a quilt to be donated to a resident of a local transitional home.  There's another pile of ugly solids -- all the reds and pinks -- that might have the same destiny!

The woods are still so brown here after a long winter with very little snow -- the only color are the subtle greens of lichen and mosses.

And of course the bird color! 

There are so many bluebirds around this spring -- seems like I see them on every walk and in the most surprising places!  All those nest boxes in the parks have brought them back in force!

Now this guy just got back from the south!!

A rufous sided towhee -- he's a bit early but seems happy to be the first one in the park which means he can secure the same ideal territory he used last summer!!

Now I need to spend the rest of the morning finishing my tax appointment preparations -- necessary!!

I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons in your part of the world.