Winter Seems to be Winding Down

I stepped out this morning just to see daylight, and found that there was only one small patch of snow left in my yard. We had quite a pile after the last set of snowstorms, especially in the spot where the driveway snow and the sidewalk snow were piled together.

Photograph of late winter flowerbed edge showing a very small remnant of snow — Is this the last of this winter’s snow? Photographed on February 25, 2018.

We are under a wind advisory today, although I think much of the debris on the lawn is left over from November just before the snow started. There are a few wood chips scattered around as well; I had a major silver maple limb removed at the beginning of the month and they cleaned up as well as they could, short of pulling out a vacuum cleaner.

That little patch of snow incited a short walk around the yard. Daffodils are poking up, and are much taller on the south side than anywhere else; Chionodoxia are, alarmingly, in places I haven’t seen them before, and the snowdrops are days, maybe even a week or two, from blooming.

A friend asked me yesterday if the snowdrops are unusually early. They are a few days behind where they were last year at this time—I just went through my February 2017 folder.

Photograph of a small cluster of snowdrops showing flowerbuds — The snowdrops are budded up. Photographed on February 23, 2018.

The crocuses are also a few days behind.

Photograph of crocus foliage just breaking out of bulb sheaths — The purple crocuses are erupting. Photographed on February 20, 2018.

The witch hazel smells wonderful, and the flowers really make me smile; the petals really seem to be reaching for the sun.

Photograph of witch hazel flowers in a sunbeam — Witch hazel soaking up the sun. Photographed on February 25, 2018.

Even the Iris cristata are getting into the act. Their first task every spring seems to be a run for the outer edge of the flowerbeds they are in—even if it means going over bricks.

Photograph of Iris cristata crawling out of flowerbed over brick — Iris cristata is making its annual break for the lawn. Photographed on February 25, 2018.

The first two full weeks of February left us with plenty of snow that fell in two major beginning-of-the-week storms. It is beautiful when you don’t have to worry about whether your commute is going to fall during a lull in the snow or the plows are going to plow you in while clearing the roads.

Photograph of snow-covered landscape featuring heated birds' water dish with snow piled on its perimeter. — Just two weeks ago, this was the view from the living room window, while it was still snowing. The mourning doves were hunkered down elsewhere, and had not yet knocked the snow on the rim into their water dish. Photographed on February 9, 2018.

I do think the worst is over, but on the other hand, all of the December and January snow had melted by the last week of January. March is anyone’s guess, but it almost always snows a little in the first week of April here.