Where did spring go?

It was actually a beautiful early spring day here, but of a different kind, one of those bright blue-sky March days, but COLD!  It was -18°C. this morning, but the sun stayed out all day, so by early afternoon I could actually feel the warmth of the sun outside.  It probably did get up to -10°C.  And with daylight savings, the sun didn't set until after 7!

Our world is back to winter, with a light covering of snow for the past 3 days, and very cold temperatures.  But the sun is high in the sky, and bright blue sky days are out-numbering the cloudy grey days.  This is spring to me, the sunny days of early March - perhaps not quite as cold as today!

But four days ago, when all the snow had disappeared, I did wander around the garden to see what signs of coming spring plants I could find.  These are the early dwarf irises, just poking out of the leaf litte.

And a tiny bit of red showing on my Rhubarb plants.

The two are the colourful spikes of peonies coming up.  They're also among early spring flowers.

The green day lily leaves never seem to quite die over the winter, and they're curling up to grow afresh now.

The Pasque Flower is another very early flower, these buds ready to unfold, but currently shivering under the snow.

 And finally!  I was astonished to find two Snowdrops in bloom!  We have very few, none of those beautiful drifts of them I see on blogs from British Columbia or England, but I'm sure this is the earliest I've seen these.

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