Like many of you, we’ve experienced “above seasonal” temperatures this week. It was only supposed to last to Wednesday and then turn grey and cold again. But it persisted, and so did the sun. And by Friday it was 15, and sunny, but very windy. Naturally, I was poking about in the gardens.

The pink pussywillow is in her full glory now. She’s always earlier than the others, and will eventually turn dark grey – but right now she’s just perfectly pink. I think I’m going to cut a few of these to put in my Blue Mountain Fish vase.

And there are lots little bits of green – snowdrops, columbine and daylilies.

And as much as I love yard squirrels, they are troublemakers. In addition to bulb pilfering…

They’ve made an absolute mess of my raised beds. For most of the beds, that doesn’t matter – there’s nothing in them. But the one on the left has garlic (I’ve already tossed a couple they completely dug up) and the one on the right has all the perennials I got on clearance last fall. They’ve totally toss about all the markers and I’m pretty sure dug up a few plants completely. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s left – and what I can identify!

But elsewhere, there’s promise of good things….

My Bluebeard shrub, and Tinkerbelle Lilac are budding.

And so is my Azalea. It wasn’t doing great in the spot I had it last year, so I moved it under one of the windows on the front of the house. I think the fact that it’s budding is a good sign, because this time last year, I thought it was completely dead!

Of course, Mother Nature has now flipped a switch – that wind blew in cold and grey… so it’s been an inside weekend. Maybe I’ll go start some seeds…