Spring is late again this year. Having survived a particularly brutal winter, which started early and never let up, we’re all tired of the snow and the cold, and anxious for the first signs of spring. So, here’s my take on the Six on Saturday Garden post….
March 20 – The first official day of spring – saw my first robin, who was uncooperative for a photo-shoot, hopping away every time I got near. Unfortunately the zoom lens on my camera is broken so this is as close as I got. 
March 22 – The tulip and daffodil tips are peeking through on the south side of the house and some of the rose bush stems are starting to turn green.
March 23 – Went out for a walk for the first time in weeks, the wind was cold but the sun was bright, and the neighbor’s snowdrops were out in full force.
March 25 – The Angry Bird – I opened the front door to check the temperature this morning and saw the morning doves have returned. One was sitting on the front step, looking quite perturbed now that it has to find a new place to nest. They are life long lovers and creatures of habit, but as they didn’t build a nest last year I thought it was safe to install new light fixtures. I’m feeling guilty but my new lights are so much nicer than the old.
Mr. And Mrs. Lovebird
March 26 – So nice to see a blue sky again, especially against a budding maple tree.
March 27 – saw my first crocus while returning a book to the library. Their flower beds are always gorgeous because they have professional gardeners maintain them.
March 28 – first spring-like day, 15 C, and first milkshake from the Dairy Queen – chocolate of course. Drove home with the windows down. 
March 29 – The ice is gone from the river and the sunlight is sparkling on the water again. 
March 30 – our first all day spring rain flooded the back forty, but brought a tinge of green to the grass. 
March 31 – brought a return to winter and a couple of inches of snow – the robin was not amused. The snow hung around for a more few days – is this some kind of April Fools joke? 
A pot of hyacinths can provide a small dose of beauty, 
while we wait for this.
What wonderful sights await us in a few more weeks. Happy Spring!
thehomeplaceweb 
Yes, spring not only is late but oh! so slow in ripening. Yea for sparkling waters instead of frozen rivers for you! I agree that your new porch light is handsomer than the old; those lovebirds that looked so cute, cuddled together, will have to make do, won’t they? I love our pair of doves. I don’t know just where they nest, but they do hang around here, take part in the feeding frenzy with the “little birds” of winter. Only one robin, so far. He doesn’t like the company. Ha! Sorry, old buddy.
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You are much farther along into spring than we are. However I could go for a milkshake and no doubt that’d make spring seem closer. Right?
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A milkshake always makes things better!
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The weather is about the same here but our Dairy Queen is not open yet. Maybe this weekend when it is suppose to warm up.
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Our DQ is open year round, as it serves fast food meals too, but I only go in the warm weather. It was my first visit since last fall, and tasted great! We will be having a warm weekend too, but rain I think.
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I really like how you did a diary of semi-Spring, back to Winter and the robin … what I have often called “the original angry bird” … your garden is beautiful Joan, all the color … when does that happen, maybe mid-April? This year it will be later because everything has been so brutally cold. I have not looked at my roses and hadn’t planned to at least until the end of April. I am afraid what I will discover, maybe like the last time following the Polar Vortex when they appeared to be dead as a doornail. I had a continued warring with the robins who insisted on building a nest in the elbow of my coach lamp out front. I never turn the front porch light on and perhaps that is why they like it so much. They will build a nest in the “elbow” and I’ll take it down, they build it back in the course of a day. The light is over the front door, mailbox and I’ll open the door and bird plops and mud and grass have fallen on my head. Last year she didn’t build anything, but I have written plenty of posts (no pictures though) of what I thought of them, and how I evicted them … yes, I like robins in the park, or somewhere -anywhere – but not in my coachlight elbow. In the backyard/side yard, right on the corner, I have two floodlights. I have to put them on, they are not sensor lights like the pole lamp I have out front. Robins build a nest there as well, over top of the metal fixture that holds the lights. Annoying as much as I like birds and nature!
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HA! I did the same thing with the love birds two years ago. Every time they tried to start building the nest I took it down, so last year they didn’t come, they must have taken the hint and build elsewhere.
I lived with them for many many years before I finally evicted them, as I wanted to get new lights. The old lights were dreadful, and so dirty, they were an embarrassment, plus I wanted new ones with sensors. I only saw the lovebird one day last week, so I don’t know where they went. They used to coo a lot, if I sat out on the porch, which was annoying sometimes. I did enjoy watching them feed their young and learn to fly however. Those are not the flowers in my garden. The snowdrops belong to my backdoor neighbours, and the beautiful picture at the end belongs to the people at the end of my street opposite the mail box. I took it last year as it was so pretty. My crocuses are yellow, and just budding out, they may be out this weekend if it stays warm. Daffodils and tulips just starting to grow. They sometimes are out in late April, but more often early May, as our springs have been so late and cold the past few years. When we used to get early springs, I would sometimes see crocuses in late Feburary or early March.
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I did the same thing to the robins, in fact you used the word “evicted” and I wrote a post by that name. My next-door neighbor that I’ve mentioned to you had a pair of doves build a nest in a planter she had left on her porch. She had some shelves on the back deck and liked putting different birdhouses on them for decoration. Sometimes she put the birdhouses out on the deck railing, and some wrens or sparrows would come build their home there. But this was just a mesh/wire planter and the doves laid two eggs – she was fascinated and every day she would take pictures and send them to me. Of course, they were not on a light or in the way, they were in a basket. The female sat on the two eggs and only one hatched. She watched the chick and took pictures, then saw it takes it first flight. I wrote a couple of posts about it fledging. I do not like the robins nesting there and I would take a plastic bag, like you use in a wastebasket and fill it with grocery store plastic bags and fit it into the elbow of the coach light … the birds would try to pick it out and I would have to hook it onto the plastic bag on one end and on the other end, to the coach light. I sometimes even put those kid’s toy pinwheels in to deter them – that didn’t work either. I was happy they didn’t show up last year, but the sparrows showed up – they were no better. This is from 2013 when I used one-word titles, a very long paragraph and no picture … sometime when you want a laugh: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2013/06/23/evicted/
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Oh Linda, that blog was SO funny! What a shame you didn’t have many early readers. What a great idea too to stuff the garbage bags in there to deter them, and the pinwheels. I was not so creative and just knocked it down with a shovel and then felt bad, but those old lights were the embarrassment of the neighbourhood. I did once knock one nest down over the garage door which I thought was empty, as it was late in the season, but there was an egg in it, and it went splat all over the concrete below, a stain I was never able to remove no matter what I used, so I guess they got even with me!
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It really looked bad though – I’d pull away from the house or see it when returning from walking and shudder … and the pinwheels sticking out to boot. I hope they don’t come this year, and you’re right – they build it back just as soon as you tear it down and they will glare at you and chatter at you from the fence.
They are not amused in the least.
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Your neighbours must have thought it was a very creative solution! Good night!
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It did work Joni – I don’t know if I took a picture of it – I know I didn’t use it in the blog because “House Beautiful” it was not! I hope they don’t come back … mud plops and bird plops on the mailbox – grass pieces all over, a piggish mess.
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Lovely pictures! my tulips are also coming up nicely, roll on summer! x
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I love your spring photos and playful words to join them – your sprouts of spring are further along than in my part of the world, so it is so NICE to see the pops of colors. The robins have been back and are singing a lot so they must be finding bugs. Yesterday I saw the doves too. Your new lights are an excellent choice. I don’t see any flowers popping through the garden beds yet, so again, it’s nice to see the flowers you captured. Thanks for stopping by and for the blog follow, it’s nice to meet you here in the Blogosphere – happy blogging to you!
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Beautiful pictures, you clearly live in a lovely area. I’ve been trying to identify your birds – your robins are clearly different to ours, and are they black swans on the lake? Our spring has got off to a slow start – we had a few beautiful days when the buds came out, but it’s now turned cold and wet and I had to put the heating back on. Hopefully it won’t kill all the blossom. Our cherry tree has started to blossom and when it is fully out it is a glorious sight and well worth its place in our garden, despite the fact it is very plain most of the year and drops thousand of leaves come autumn – my husband would dearly like to chop it down and we have a constant battle over it. I always win.
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It may be a poor fuzzy picture of a robin as I wasn’t able to get too close! No, we don’t have swans here that I know of unless in a park-like setting, I don’t know if those are ducks or more likely Canadian geese as both hang out near where I took the picture, as the water is warmer where an outlet/drain comes into the river. We had a lovely summery day yesterday 20 C but today is back to normal 8 C – no blossoms here yet, our springs seem to be late every year. We may even get a bit of snow on Thursday!
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Beautiful pictures and so nice to see flowers!
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Not much progress since then other than the grass is green and the daffodils are out, but a whole week of rain forecast…..looks like no spring again.
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