Signs of Spring

Spring is slowly coming to the frozen north. This time of year is actually frightfully ugly as the dingy grey snow melts uncovering all of the garbage collected there during the winter and showcasing the brown grass of all of our yards.

I took the camera out to the front lawn to search for signs of spring and look what I found.

Life!
So, I have a confession to make. I love my flower beds, but by the end of last summer I had much bigger worries in my life than whether or not my garden beds were ever weeded. So, I never actually got the beds ready for winter. Instead of mulching them, I decided the sheer volume of weeds would provide a natural cover for the flowers over winter. It's almost bad enough for me to wish for another blizzard to cover them all up so I do not have to contemplate how many hours of weeding I have ahead of me!

The rabbits are out in force. Notice in the photo how they did not nibble on the surrounding weeds and grass, but instead chewed on only the new flower shoots. Anyone have a good rabbit replant that's not a firearm?


And these would be the tracks left by very destructive little voles. Last spring when the snow melted our neighbors lawn was covered in these trails. They must have put something on their lawn because clearly the voles have moved to ours.


Ah, spring.