SPRING IS SPRINGING!

Well, it's definitely getting into the swing of things now. About a week ago, the first color started to show on tulips, and now a few of them are into the "I'm definitely a bloom at this point" stage:




The magnolias are blooming everywhere, the country is awash with daffodils, and everyone has frog spawn in their pond but me.

Proof:






As you can see, there are anemones, primroses, puschkinia, the ever-present grape hyacinth, and some nice daffodils coming up. But no frog spawn. I am convinced that my frogs are gay.

There's a really pretty bright-blue rogue flower coming up in the grass, which I have tentatively identified as siberian scilla:



I am hoping that it seeds itself and there are more. I'm going to try to do what I can to help it along, because it's a gorgeous color.

The birds are getting cheekier and cheekier when it comes to getting their breakfast:



and refuse to give me the respect due a carnivore.

I have liberated (Alf at work calls this "relocating") more plants from work, and now my greenhouse could tentatively be described as "full":





But I will have loads of flowers if things continue. I experimented and left the kerosene heater on last night. Incidentally, they call kerosene "paraffin" over here, which is just silly.

Lastly, the hyacinth that I didn't think would actually work planted in the garden has, in fact, bloomed, and looks really gorgeous with the crocuses when they decide to open up:



You can see them all the way from the house, and it's just a lovely dramatic color. I am definitely going to have to fill in that area with more things. I liberated some pretty yellow primroses from work, so I might plant them there.

There's a chaffinch (which, by the way, is an absolutely gorgeous little bird) that keeps bonking its head against the front window. I told Mike about it yesterday, and this morning as he was leaving for work, he called up the stairs, "That dumbass chaffinch is back again." Which just shows you our different approaches to wildlife.

There are also some super-cute blue tits in the back garden that are still eating my fat balls (that phrase still cracks me up) and still, rudely, nesting in the neighbors' birdhouse.

Hmph.