It is SPRING!

I am really sorry some of you are not quite here yet but spring has sprung in Texas!! The past two weeks the Texas Mountain Laurels been blooming like CRAZY. I wish I could send a smell through the computer, it is like grape koolaid rolling down the road.

Then yesterday I saw them- Bluebonnets, our state flower. They are a wildflower but TXDOT also shoots seeds so we have more. Last week we finally got rain and this week the flowers are here! I love bluebonnets.

Plus the goats, sheep, horses, donkeys and cattle have babies. Hooray, I love spring. I am in a great mood today must be all that grape koolaid in the air. :D:D

I LOVE BLUEBONNETS!!

Can you post pictures of the beauties? Pretty please??

My Yoshino cherry tree is blossoming. Oh the joy!! :D

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...rryblossom.jpg

first blossom

How gorgeous thanks for sharing!

Tomorrow I plan to commute home and take the camera. I will look like a tourist taking pics of the bonnets but I love them. I have never tired of them living here all my life. I was shocked to see so many popping, all courtesy of that 3-4 days of rain last week.:)

I wish I could figure out where those mountain laurels on the last county road to my neighborhood are. It is so fragrant! I usually smell grass or the critters (lots of goats and cattle) but right now mountain laurels, my favorite smell after gardenias blooming.

That looks and sounds lovely. sigh.
Signs of Spring in RI:

1. College students wearing shorts (tho it's 40d outside) "lying out" on the green.
2. Sand piles where there were snow piles.
3. My DH moved the plow truck to the side of the barn, instead of in front of it. But doesn't take the whole plow off, cuz there might be "one more big one."
4. Mud.
5. Zeppolas.
6. Forsythia sprigs in bunches selling for $4.99 at Stop and Shop, when next week they will be in bloom.
6. No more frozen dog poop to scoop! Comes up easier nowadays...
7. People with "NPT" round stickers on the backs of convertables, driving with the top down and the heat on, wrapped in down and scarves.
8. Short skirts and sleeveless tops.
9. Sweaters start to smell.
10. People get the iced mocha latte at Dunkin Donuts, instead of the regulah cawfee. :D

Signs of spring in Washington, DC:

- Partisan bickering on Capitol Hill

Oh wait, that's also a sign of summer, winter and fall... :-)

Let me start over.

Signs of spring in Washington, DC:

- Cherry blossoms!

Tourist season kicks off in high gear. Park rangers who work on the National Mall call it "March madness."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by indigoiis

6. No more frozen dog poop to scoop! Comes up easier nowadays...

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LOL! :D

Signs of spring have started here in NW Oregon, too, in the form of daffodils and tulips!

Yes, it's amazing that college students are wearing shorts and no sleeves at this temperature.
What do you mean a "regulah cawfee?" I thought it was just a "regulah."

We've got daffodils here in SoVA!

Oh... we are SO behind. But I noticed that I have crocuses up! And the green grass shoots are starting to show through the dead stuff along the trails. The fish in my pond THINK they want to eat, but they don't really -- I tried. I THOUGHT I wanted to wear short sleeves today, but I don't really -- still too cold!

So a few more weeks, I'd say! Sundial, thanks for the gorgeous cherry blossom photo! I can't wait!

Oh, and what does "NPT" on the bumper sticker mean? Am I out of touch?! :o

Our signs of spring:

Our goat is so huge she can no longer hop up on the milking stand to eat. She's due in less than 2 weeks!

Daffodils everywhere and tulips just popping up.

Bullfrogs singing in the nature preserves.

Mud so thick it takes my shoes off.

Buds on all our fruit trees and the lilac bushes and baby leaves on the rose bushes.

We are no longer the only shoppers in the nursery when we go!

More bikes on the bike rack at work every day (though this could be a sign of rising gas prices too...sometimes it's hard to tell!).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

Our goat is so huge she can no longer hop up on the milking stand to eat. She's due in less than 2 weeks!

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I love kids!! You have GOT to post pics of the new kids. They are sooo cute. I love em more than sheep. Can you tell I like pictures?

There is nothing I love more than Texas Mountain Laurels in bloom. I always tell people they smell like grape bubble gum or grape soda. Amanda is right, for about two weeks down here the whole town smells like them. And the blooms are beautiful, too. Sniff -- aaah! :) :) :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jesvetmed

Oh... we are SO behind. But I noticed that I have crocuses up! And the green grass shoots are starting to show through the dead stuff along the trails. The fish in my pond THINK they want to eat, but they don't really -- I tried. I THOUGHT I wanted to wear short sleeves today, but I don't really -- still too cold!

So a few more weeks, I'd say! Sundial, thanks for the gorgeous cherry blossom photo! I can't wait!

Oh, and what does "NPT" on the bumper sticker mean? Am I out of touch?! :o

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No, you're just from Washington. ;) Many folks around here have those euro-style oval decals on their cars with "MV" (for Martha's Vineyard), "HAMP" for the Hamptons, and "NPT" for Newport. All tourist destinations.

Crankin, I was going to just say "regulah" but, I was afraid the folks from Washington :D wouldn't know what that was.

They need a SNE translator. :p

Nothing is blooming here, but yesterday on my ride, the City of Waltham had huge piles of sand and brush every 5 ft. along a main road. It looked like they had started the job of cleaning up, but quit half way. Quite ugly and a hazard for cyclists. But there are lots of peepers. I love that sound.

Going to meet a friend for some regulah... actually I hate DD and that's the only place I hear that term being used. Yes, I am a coffee snob.

Spring in Idaho-
My pussywillow has little furry kittens paws starting to show.
The smell of skunk reminds me that summer is coming.
5:30 am birds singing in the trees.
Wood-peckers and Robins are eating and nesting.
30 degrees in the morning - 50 degrees in the afternoon.
I become aware of the fact that my windows in my house are very dirty.
People start putting their trampolines up.
The river is full of iceburgs instead of fully frozen.
The geese flying overhead.
Sidewalk chalk pictures on my driveway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by indigoiis

No, you're just from Washington. ;) Many folks around here have those euro-style oval decals on their cars with "MV" (for Martha's Vineyard), "HAMP" for the Hamptons, and "NPT" for Newport. All tourist destinations.

Crankin, I was going to just say "regulah" but, I was afraid the folks from Washington :D wouldn't know what that was.

They need a SNE translator. :p

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I was always partial to the ACK ones (being a fan of Bill the Cat). ;)

And man....I miss DD. :(

Day 1 of spring: The view from my upstairs window this morning. Yes, that is ice on Lake Superior, as far as I can see (if you can see the slightly darker blue strip on the horizon, that is Isle Royale, which is about 50 miles away). Even after several days in the 50s earlier this week and lots of sunshine lately. The lake doesn't always freeze over, but once it does it takes a while to break up.

Not much green yet, and there won't be until May. On the bright side, I took today off work, and DH and I went skiing on the crust with our dog this afternoon - you can ski on top pretty much anywhere the snowmobiles haven't been.

Noticed some green shoots coming up in the yard a few days ago. I think they might be daffodils. Today is cold and there are the sporadic snow fluffies in the air but while taking Chloe for her walk this morning I noticed some crocuses (croci?) in the yard across the street and also in the yard two houses down from ours. There are some buds appearing on the tree behind our house. I love spring. :D

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Many folks around here have those euro-style oval decals on their cars with "MV" (for Martha's Vineyard),

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I had the "MV" on my previous car. Have been to the Cape many times but never there. We "branded" my car as a joke because they're my SO's initials. :rolleyes:

I built my first garden box at my new house today! It's the start of what will be a beautiful and generous kitchen garden. I can't wait to plant my lettuce plants in it tomorrow.

Walking to the gym after work the other night, I was struck by how many birds I was hearing. Not crows cawing or geese honking, but actual tweet tweet songbirds. Very nice.

Took a ride on the canal towpath today and I heard those wonderful tweety birds too :)
Little tufts of green, a rock wall that in a few weeks will be bursting with wildflowers from every crevice. I'm keeping my eye on that one.
I've been thinking about that wall all winter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sundial

I LOVE BLUEBONNETS!!

Can you post pictures of the beauties? Pretty please??

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Ask and ye shall receive! I snapped this pic on the homeward leg of my ride today:

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...1/DSCN0552.jpg

Thanks! I haven't had my real camera along and with my tremors the camera phone is just a blurry mess. The small rain two weeks ago really made our pop! :D

Thank you Wacky!! Ahhhh, the bluebonnets. I wish I could grow them here.

Signs of Spring -

The pansy's that I planted last fall are blooming again
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/ga...4-IMG_1116.JPG

And so are the dafodils:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/ga...4-IMG_1117.JPG

AND, we had to spend a couple of hours mowing our lawn yesterday for fear it would take over the house (it was so long already!). Spring is here!

Here is our first day of spring photo from our cabin in E. Wash. No sign of spring yet, but the waterfall behind our property is starting to flow pretty good which means it is just around the corner.

Attachment 8932

My pansies are huge. Well they were "colossal" to begin with but they are huge, they will probably die soon in our heat. My society garlic has bunched out well, can't wait for it to bloom. The Ruellia is looking green but no blooms yet. I am waiting to see if the Mexican Heather survived the hard freezes peppered with hot days or I need to buy more. One yaupon I moved didn't root before the winter and died. Spring planting time is on! :p