Behold! The Harbinger of Spring!

Yes, I know what day it is, and no, I'm not going to point and laugh at you as I yell "April Fool's." For this is a subject a Minnesotan just doesn't joke about: Spring has officially arrived in Minnesota.

The past few weeks have been a torment of weather conditions: flirting with 50 degrees, sun, clouds, back down to 30 degrees, rain, snow, and any combination of those conditions. It starts to wear on a person and eventually one is convinced that the world is going to remain a cloudy, brown, soggy, too-warm-to-freeze-but-too-cold-to-melt  world. Oh, to see some green....

In the hopes that Minnesota will be green, warm and snowless once again, today I decided to prepare my maintenance van for the gardening season. Now, there is a spot in our yard between the house and the garage that has always been low. But in the last week, we've noticed that this low spot seems to be lower than normal, and the sidewalk next to it seems to be higher than normal. Could it be frost heaving? We did dig out a new basement for our 100+ year old house a few years ago...maybe something is settling? And then there is the mysterious low wet spot in our neighbor's yard - could it be spreading to our yard?

Anyway, those were my thoughts as I walked along the sidewalk to the garage to take care of my van this afternoon. As I walked, I looked reproachfully at the low spot (how dare it be lower) and absently said out loud to myself:

"I just don't remember that spot being so AH-HA-HA! CROCUS!"

Then I giggled like the horticultural fool I am.... and looked about to see if anyone was in hearing distance of my odd outburst.

But I don't care! Because looking up at me from that oddly lower low spot, are three clumps of crocus, just showing their purple and yellow buds. Life! Color!

Of course my next action was to get my camera. (my husband has a better camera than I do so these are his pictures) As I was setting up the shot, I noticed something else. 

Daffodils! Oh, it just gets better!