A few days ago was Groundhog's Day and Punxsutawny Phil got spooked by his shadow again, the wimp. So apparently we're in for another six weeks of winter. I probably can't complain since it doesn't seem like we've had much winter at all so far. Even though it hasn't been too cold, though, I miss having lots of flowers and growth in the garden. So, despite not being nearly as fed up with winter as I would normally be at this time of year, I was very excited to see the first daffodil of "spring" in my garden. The flower bud was fat and fully colored already early on Wednesday morning when I had to leave town for a few days, so I expect it first bloomed on that day, February 1. That's the earliest I recall having daffodil blooms (except for winter-blooming paperwhites) but it's only a couple weeks early and it looks like the rest in the clump will be closer to the normal schedule. Still, as a harbinger of spring, this bloom is more than welcome in my garden.
