Nipped in bud

The cycles of our seasons tell us when Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter officially begin, but nature doesn't always follow the cycle in this part of Missouri.

Often in February or early March, the icy grip of winter lifts for a few days in a row, and the temperature will climb to the 60s, and it feels like Spring. And the creation thinks its Spring too. Birds start to sing. The bathroom ants emerge to invade the toothpaste.

And then suddenly, overnight, there they are.



The sweet little crocus spring up in the flower bed in the front yard.




In an earlier post, I said that it would be 6 weeks before the first flower bloomed. I totally forgot that the crocus would indeed bloom before Spring was officially here.




The blooms close at night, which protects them somewhat from the cold, but inevitably within a few days, winter will descend again with a vengeance, the temperature will plummet and stay cold, and they will freeze. In years gone by, I struggled to keep them alive by covering them but it inevitably failed; now I just let nature take its course.