The hyacinth along my driveway were up and blooming this week, so on Friday morning, I went to check on the muscari and tulips I planted last fall in my community garden plot.  To my Incredulous Delight, I found they had pushed their leaves through the straw mulch I’d covered them with.  I pulled it back a little, but I don’t want them to get too warm yet.  Tulips are really a May flower here, but I’ll keep an eye on them from now on.   With a few days this week in the upper 70s, they might make an early appearance.

It’s a little hard to trust the first few weeks of April – to wear only your warm weather hat, and shoes that are no good in the snow.  She can turn pretty blustery without much warning, April can.  The forsythia – a bell weather if there ever was one – have not yet ventured their yellow wings, but their branches are plump with mouse-ear sized buds, counting down the days to bloom.

Forsythia notwithstanding, though, I made up my mind it’s worth the risk to take the sunshine-warmth and red-wing blackbirds at their word.