Birds Singing In The Morning – It’s The Beginning of Spring!

Nothing means the beginning of spring quite like the sounds of birds singing and chirping just before daylight arrives. For me, this is one of the most soul-enriching times of the spring morning. If I have my first cup of coffee, freshly brewed, and the sounds of the waking birds chittering and chirping and starting their morning with a song, then I am content.

Woe unto those around me until I have had my morning coffee.

It is a ritual and I love that first cup in the morning. I have to have it just after it brews and I like it very hot. And I like my coffee “straight up.” Don’t put anything in it. Just good black coffee.

I am an early riser. And early is 3:30 or 4am. If I sleep til 5am sometimes, I feel like I am behind already.  Figure that one out. When I worked and set my alarm for 5 am, I had to punch the snooze button at least twice.  Now that I have retired, I am anxious to get out of bed and……do as I please!

Yesterday while I walked through the garden, I saw many plants beginning their year’s journey, pushing up through the rocks and stone, or coming up among the debris left from last fall. Each year they seem to persevere and come back with all the colors they have been holding on to all the cold winter days. Be sure and check out all my Backyard Flower Garden posts.

I walked through the yard and past my gardens. Back in the woods, I found a random little crocus coming up and blooming so pretty and purple. It has to have been from some discarded soil when I have dumped some pots or deck planters. When I get rid of soil, I sometimes just scatter it in the woods. There are some spots where branches have fallen during windstorms and they poke large holes in the ground depending on how heavy they are.

I must have filled a hole and “planted” an overlooked little crocus . I love little surprises like that.

My tiny dwarf iris are budding and I have seen one bloom and fade already. They are only a few inches high and I have some in my hypertufa ( this one is a Styrofoam planter) and the others are in the ground surrounding bigger planters.

These tiny miracles are so cute. It is unbelievable how little an iris can be. The blooms tend to be bigger than the whole plant in some cases.

Here is the planter that these particular iris plants are inside. Those sedum with them are tiny sedum sexangulare and they have made good companions.

My Grecian windflower or Anemone blanda is only there for a brief moment in the spring. If I don’t make an effort to go out and look for it, I might miss it. After blooming it goes dormant and then I can’t find it. Maybe this year I will mark the places and relocate it to a large hypertufa trough.

That sounds like a good enough reason to make another really big hypertufa planter, right?

Okay, one more and then I need to wind this up. Remember Mrs Hen and her demise last fall? Well, her babies are doing well and I am hoping for more and more this year. See what I mean! Sempervivum are the gift that keeps on giving. Loving it!

Here’s hoping for a warm but dry day here in Ohio so that we can get out there and garden! Check out all of your new surprises for today! Have fun.