One Warm Day...

... and things are popping up all over the place.
Daffodils in the yard, which may have even been there under the snow, became visible today.

Here is a baby columbine. The tiny buds on my Am. Hazel have started opening as well, but they are too tiny for me to photograph. Also, pick up a few of winter's decomposing leaves, and I found all sorts of squirmy life. Worms, centipedes, little roly polies, and some tiny white bugs are all active and plentiful under there...

Also heard, seen, or reported by a third party:

• killdeers, today.
• sandhill cranes, a few days ago, reported by fivecrows' father.
• a bat, reported by fivecrows,
  
• herons, seen by me today but earlier in the week by fivecrows,
  
• our porch raccoon is back to looking longingly (or with loathing, I'm not sure) into our window.
• cedar waxwings, also seen by fivecrows.
• it is very muddy!
  

Ice is still on the lakes, but there's a lot of melted water on top of it...

TGIF

This may not be a phenological event in the strictest sense, but it is definitely a marker of the seasons passing... the CSA started this week.  I picked up the first share yesterday, but had to rush immediately back out after bringing it home.  And so dinner yesterday was radishes, plain.  They had varying degrees of bite and they were fresh and crunchy and welcome.

Today we continued to enjoy the bounty in another near-perfect moment.  After a warm day, the air started to cool and I started a fire.  I baked potatoes in the coals and mixed an herb butter using the CSA's green garlic and chives, as well as rosemary and oregano that we have been cultivating indoors.  And that was dinner (with a cold beverage).  So delicious.  We ate it on the porch with bats fluttering overhead and then I watched the full moon rise -- orange, then yellow, then white -- behind the neighbor's house. 

In other sightings, I saw baby geese today -- which have probably been around for a while... regular readers of this blog know that I am not a bird nerd of very high caliber.  If I notice something bird-oriented on the first day, that's just plain lucky.  I have been noticing a lot of goldfinches all over lately. By no means are these the first ones I've seen, but by gosh they are active.  I have no idea what this means.  Also... My purple milkweed emerged today (or I noticed it today) but no butterfly weed in any location yet.  I hope it's still coming and not dead in all 3 spots in my yard where I've planted it!  

Tomorrow is the plant sale and I get some new shrubs, natives, and veggies and annual flowers that it's just a bit too early to put in the ground.