Very Early Flower Power

What amazing, beautiful weather we're having. Aside from the obvious bad aspects, if this is global warming, bring it on! My mom used to say that the weather really doesn't start to change until St. Patrick's day and she was right. But this year she would have been as thrilled as we are to welcome an early Spring.

Today we opened the pond. That is to say, we did a partial water change, hooked up the UV light and the filters, and started the skimmer. Doing this was like giving each of the fish a little shake and saying, "Wake up! It's Spring". Because right away and still right now they started appearing, swimming around, playing, and looking for a bite to eat. Truly we'd barely seen a sign of a fish this year until this afternoon. They are so happy.

Another early Spring joy is the beautiful and bountiful flower bloom. From crocuses to daffodils to hyacinths to magnolias to the very early flowering almond they are all putting on a wonderful show. And here's proof:

crocuses

Daffodils

Magnolia

Flowering Almond

To give you an idea of how extraordinary this is, the magnolia was in full bloom on May 1st of last year. And the hyacinths and daffodils were blooming on April 15th.

(I can't believe I forgot to photograph the hyacinths but I'll definitely include them with the 'birds returning' photos hopefully tomorrow.