I've been keeping an eye on things, naturally. Since I last posted, the daffodils and tulips have emerged more, though they're nowhere near blooming yet. However, in the last few days, the lawn has erupted with crocuses. I noticed three purple buds poking up above the grass a couple of days ago, which was remarkable on its own, because they didn't come up at all last year. (Maybe they're biennials?) This morning, I counted a dozen and a half purple, blue, yellow/white buds, and almost half of those had opened fully by the time I strolled down to get the mail around noon.

There are some interesting things coming up with the tulips, as well. I'm not entirely certain, but I think I'm seeing my dear old Glory of the Snows at the back of the bed, though the buds are so tightly furled as to look like hyacinths. And the bluebells are looking promising: more spears than I've seen before, bigger, too, despite the children tramping around the yard and setting up playhouses in their bed. I'm crossing my fingers and praying I get some actual blossoms this year.

The lilac is budding out--just leaves, I'm pretty certain. It's not been in place long enough for flowers, just four years; usually it takes five years for a lilac to really settle in and start blooming.

The Rosebush from Hell (TM) is still leafless, and the mere sight of it makes my pruning fingers itch. I'm determined to get that monster down to size this year! My wee Rosamundi bush isn't growing nearly as fast, which is both a blessing and a curse.

The chives survived the winter and are already poking lovely green spears above the mass of last year's dead growth. I mulched most of the herbs in the garden last year, in hopes that at least one variety would overwinter; none of the slips I took inside rooted, unfortunately, so we were without fresh herbs all winter. I think it's still a bit too early for most of them, though; even my lovely, hardy lavender is looking winter-weary and drab.

One success from last year: you may remember that I repotted one of my geraniums and brought it indoors to overwinter. I took two slips from it and tried to root them. One took nicely, while the other didn't, but the one that did is growing fast and sprouting all kinds of leaves. I half expect it to start blooming before I can get it planted outside!

I'm hoping that the weather on Friday, my next day off, will be fine; I'd love to get out there and tidy up the winter's damage.