As I have been out on my daily walks for the past week, I have noticed many of our neighbors working to clean up their gardens.   Despite some of my concerns that it may be too early…Grape Arbor has freshened up outside for spring as well.

That involves a lot of raking and trimming, including the large clump of grasses in the backyard beside the parking lot.  My landscaper marveled at the size of this one plant, and estimates that it may be almost 100 years old!  When the kitties lived onsite, they always loved hunting small critters inside the shelter of the maiden grass.  Some folks cut it down in the fall, but I like the look of it in the winter, even when sometimes snow or ice flattens it to the ground.

I usually leave a nice covering of leaves over most of the gardens, to help protect them from the cold, ice and snow.  Now that those leaves are removed, you can really see that the crocuses and daffodils are blooming or almost blooming.  Most of the other bulbs are starting to show as well.

The witch hazel bush, which is always the first to bloom in the late winter early spring, has bloomed now for several weeks, longer than I remember it blooming.  I think that it may have to do with the ups and downs of warm cold/warm cold that we have had.  The yellow flowers are starting to fade, but I can smell the fragrance walking down the driveway.

Soon to follow will be the forsythia, which are just starting to green out…and the tulips all along the walks.  It really does make me hopeful that things will soon be back to whatever normal is now.