Friday Five, Pre-Spring

You all are aware of my feelings about February. And today is the last day of the month-that-shall-not-be-named (except, of course, in my previous sentence). And because I live in the South, it’s pre-spring here.

Pre-spring is really cold days, i.e. 20s interspersed with days in the 60s and 70s. (Why can’t every day be 70 degrees all year round?)

Here are my five favorite things about pre-spring.

1. Daffodils and crocuses. They are blooming! Nothing is happier than purple and yellow against the gray of dead leaves.

2. I get my hands dirty in the soil. Yes, I’m weeding in 30 degree weather. And I hate weeding, but the smell of life is intoxicating. (BTW, why don’t the freezing nights kill the early weeds?)

3. The trees are starting to bud. Yesterday, I saw a cherry tree in a swathe of

burgundy—the buds had just broken open, but not yet unfurled.

4. The birds are coming back. I’ve seen bluebirds. No one can be glum when bluebirds are around.

5. Seed catalogs. I’m getting several seed/plant catalogs a week. (Seeds are cheaper than buying plants. And you can start perennials from seed. But it takes the patience of a saint.) I love looking through the pages and imagining the flowers and the vegetables on my table. Pre-spring bliss…

Here are some photos of my flowers.

The crocuses. Coming up in and around them are hyacinths.
As soon as the crocuses are spent, the hyacinths will be blooming.

Best decision I ever made was planting a gunney sack's worth of daffodils bulbs. They come back every year and in greater numbers. Now they are everywhere.

Five Good Things About February

Let me start this by saying that February is my least favorite month. (Sorry, to all my friends who have birthdays this month—you all are the exceptions to the rule.) So instead of feeling glum, I’m going to list my favorite things about of February.

Gray skies. (Okay, I prefer either bright blue or the deep black of storms.) But gray skies exercise my synonym finder. The sky today is ironwood, gunmetal, the color of cold, dead ash.

Green shoots. I love gardening and in February I begin to see new growth. Sadly, it’s the growth of weeds not crocuses. Boo.

No oily skin. This would be great except my skin isn’t oily to start with. It’s dry. By February my skin is so dry, the outside air makes it hurt. So when I remember I slather it in cream…except, it makes my skin feel oily. Hiss.

Winter sickness is almost over. All the colds, flus, and stomach bugs are over. (I hope.) All that remains is the dust that’s crept into the bones of the house. I’m severely allergic to dust. I’m tempted to open all the windows and air out the house, but the boys think that 30 degrees Fahrenheit is not optimal air out the house weather.

Ladybugs. I like ladybugs. They’re brightly colored—cheerful even. They go to town on aphids—I hate aphids. All in all, when I see a lady bug, I smile. Until this winter. Somewhere they found a chink in our house and invaded to survive the winter. If they hid in the walls, that would be great. But they like our ceilings. I don’t like crawly lines of red with back spots meandering the ceiling. But our ceilings are ridiculously high, so I have to balance precariously on pieces of furniture holding a vacuum in one hand and the suction hose in the other (because the hose is too short to reach from the floor to the ceiling) and vacuum ladybugs off the ceiling…you know, I hate ladybugs.

Hmm, this is not cheering me up. Isn’t February over yet?

This ladybug is where they should be, outside eating aphids. Sigh.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.