Spring is Rapidly Approaching

It's still officially winter and it still looks like it with little hints here and there that the first day of Spring will soon be here.

Here is what my herb garden looked like before I went out today and got rid of most of the old stalks. I leave my seed stalks in the garden all winter for cover and for the birds to have seeds to eat in the snow. Then as little green shoots start showing up here and there I have a major cleanup job that needs to be done quickly. Especially as the Farmers Almanac tells me I can start putting in my peas, lettuce, and spinach seeds after March 18 (the light of the moon).

I'm not sure why the above ground crops are planted in the light of the moon and the under ground crops in the dark of the moon, but Granny and Poppa did it that way, and their folks, and their folks, ad infinitum, so who am I to do it differently? They were a lot smarter about those kinds of things than I ever will be. They planted to feed themselves and their families, I plant to enjoy, and eat as a side benefit. If I didn't plant I could buy the produce at the grocery store; except for tomatoes, I can hardly force myself to eat most of the hard, tasteless, pale pink things that grew in California (or Peru, given the season) and were picked green and developed to be hard so they won't be squishy by the time they get to market.

Joe found one lone little white Snowdrop blooming by the corner of the house, so I got a photo of it. I don't find any sign of the Scillas or daffodils, which I planted on the north side of the house, so they come up and bloom late. I need to stick some bulbs in where the early Spring sun can find them, this Fall.

In Canon City today we found a small Magnolia tree blooming. This is the only one anywhere around, and it is in front of a brick real estate office building, on the south side where it gets protection and sun. I keep telling people that we live in the Banana Belt of Colorado and here is the proof. I wonder if I could convince one to grow and bloom here? Of course, what I really covet is a Pomegranate tree, but....

On the way home we got this photo of a tiny Brahma calf with his mother in the corral of one of our local small gentleman's ranches. Isn't he adorable with those big ears? We also saw several little black calves cavorting around their mothers in a pasture on another ranch, but couldn't get photos of them. Around here calves tend to be born in late winter, so playing calves are another sign that Spring is coming. Please click on the photo to see how cute he is, slightly larger.