It might actually be spring

There has been an awful lot of whining lately about our tardy spring in the midwest. But after the third snowiest winter on record, we demand some warmth! We don't want snow on May 1st! (which we got anyway).

I realized there is an interesting difference between Jeremy and I. He gets depressed and sad if it's cloudy and grey a lot. He needs the sun. I get depressed and sad (and lately a little angry!) if it's cold for too long. I need warmth! I don't mind if it's grey and cloudy for 6 months in a row as long as it isn't 30 degrees (or 40...or even 50).

Anyway, with that said, and despite the lingering cold, plants have been waking up all over the place and things are getting greener.

My tulipa tarda, one of the earliest blooming flowers I have, bloomed last week.



Violets are taking over the yard and starting to flower. I love all my violets!





My regular tulips have taken so long to bloom, I think our yard is in some sort of month-long lag behind every other spot in the city.
These finally bloomed a couple days ago...


But the ones in the front yard still haven't bloomed!



I think these are the only tulips in the US that haven't bloomed yet.

I was starting to worry that our cherry tree wasn't going to bloom at all but I just noticed the beginning of blossoms on Saturday. On the same day, I was at a friends' house whose cherry tree had totally blossomed! At least we'll probably get blossoms, and cherries, but not as many as last year. Notice anything about this tree?



No? Look a little closer:



Notice how some branches have leaves and buds and some don't? Those that don't are all on the same tree. The bigger of the two parts of the tree is totally dead. Jeremy will be cutting that down soon. If you look very closely in that first photo you can see a little sucker growing up between the two trunks. It's probably 3 feet high. We cut back all the rest and we'll let that one grow to replace the one we're taking down. It probably seems weird, but after all, those two big trunks were just suckers on the original tree which came down years and years ago. Perhaps the whole thing will utterly fail some day, but as long as it's producing I can't bear to cut it down!