Sunday, March 9, 2014

March 9, 2014, Week 12, special team competition this week

Spring is not here. There is nothing green yet. There is no sign of snowdrops.
This past Monday morning the low was minus ten degrees. One of the strangest dimensions of late winter mornings is the birds. The cardinals have come back, along with the robins. They create the full complement of the early morning bird sounds,at 6 in the morning in April and May. Monday morning it sounded like April, but there was all that snow and cold.
But Spring is coming.The big melt has started. The snow cover, which I am reminded, is nowhere near what they have elsewhere, is pulling back. You can see ground again. I picked up sticks in the yard yesterday. The ten day forecast, which had us excited a week ago with a single 40 degree temperature, now features 5 40’s and 3 50’s.

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On to the show.
Here is a picture of that winner you picked, host Liberty. If you are to have just one hosta, this would be the one.
The full voting was:
Hosta Liberty 22 Cactus 15 Hoya 12 Columbine 7
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So now let us move on to Week 12. As I said last week, the finals are bring postponed for a week, to give the weather a chance to catch up.
This week we are going to try something different. We will have a team competition. While this will require you to look at more pictures when you make your choice, it will give you more pictures. The team that wins will not get to compete in the finals, which hopefully will start next week.

Here is Team Yellow. There are four players on each team.
This first player, and a very fitting picture from March 13 of last year, is a single winter aconite.

Next is the dog tooth violet, also known as Erythronium.

Crown imperial fritillaria

This is a Hibiscus, which comes inside in the winter, giving us yellow in January.

The second team is Team Blue.
Siberian Iris.

anemone blanda

lupine.


Finally here is the little spring flower that provides a blanket of blue in early sping, even before the bluebells. It is called scilla or squill.

This is team orange.

Tulip

Iceland Poppy

Butterfly weed, or asclepias

Michigan lily

Finally here is team white.

Lupine

Fall anemone

Poppy

Lilium

There you have it. Vote this week for your favorite team of pictures.
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In a world where people can knit sweaters for penguins and chickens (google those and see) I can hang pumpkins in the trees and celebrate mardi gras. This picture is from 2012. I must confide with you however. Outdoor pumpkin art has not spread throughout the neighborhood.



That’s it for this week. Soon it really will be time to look carefully for the first green things outside.

Philip

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