I know the winter isn’t really over yet – as this post is publishing, we’re experiencing another cold snap and the nighttime lows are back below freezing – but to me the first of March is the beginning of spring. It’s time to find out what those hard freezes killed, and they didn’t.

My quince bushes are blooming.

So are the tulips.

And my spindly little azalea.

The Japanese maglonias are blooming all over the neighborhood. There are little tiny buds on the dogwood. Even the hydrangeas are sprouting a little bit.

I really don’t like winter. I’m tired of cold, of being cooped up in the house, and of looking at brown and gray deadness. After this particularly hard winter, I’ve got a really bad case of spring fever!