Spring

In the last 48 hours spring has arrived here.  The ice went out of the pond 
yesterday, and a pair of geese arrived.  This morning they were joined by a 
pair of mallards.  We enjoy the mallards but the geese are a pain - pull 
up chunks of the so-called lawn and poop all over the place.
I spent some time yesterday removing the Christmas-tree branches we
put down in January and loosening the mulch below.  I hate to take the
mulch off too early, but I have lots of oak leaves, which are tough and 
don't break down easily.  Bulbs come up through other types of leaves,
but the oak leaves are too tough - bulbs just become twisted and 
distorted by the coverage.
 In one spot beside a south-facing boulder I have a nice clump of daffodils 
blooming - probably 'Topolino.'  Daffs in other places 
are only a couple of inches out of the ground.  Purple crocus 
have naturalized in the back on a south slope and have opened
today making a lovely spread.  An occasional white or yellow crocus
is peeping up in other beds.  The purple Hellebore blooms are several
inches high.  The white hellebore appears to have been tasted and 
spit out - the blossom was lying on the ground near the plant.  Probably
deer.
  I started seeds indoors today - tomatoes, herbs, peppers, some 
annuals - not as many as I used to do, but enough to make me feel
that spring is coming.  We leave tomorrow morning for our semi-
annual birding trip to Bombay Hook and Chincoteague.  I expect the
seeds will be up when we return in a week.  I'm really ready for this
trip.  Things have been pretty tense around here for the past few 
weeks, so this should give us a real break.  When we return spring
should be springing all over the place and everything should have 
been done yesterday, but we'll be more ready for it, I hope.
Auralie

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