Yesterday’s cold north wind despite the sunny skies sent me looking for signs of green and I found some in the Upper Arb, just off the paved path below the hill at Second St. and Oak. where Spring Creek flows under the bridge. The Arb has a web page devoted to spring but alas, the text/photos there are brochure-like, true for all springs, not current for this spring. (Hey Doug, the Arb needs a blog!)
Northfield-based blogger Mary Schier has made some ‘signs of spring’ posts lately to her My Northern Garden blog, eg, Snow Blooms and An Early Spring? (BTW, kudos to Mary for winning a Garden Writers Association award for a recent blog post.)
Got some signs of spring to report? Photos? Let’s have ‘em.’
Update 8 PM: I’ve changed the sentence about ‘canned text/photos.’ See the comments below.
Rob Hardy alerted me to his blog post Pasqueflowers for Holy Week: “Here you go, Griff! The pasqueflowers are blooming, right on schedule. (This photo was taken at approximately 2:45 pm today, Wednesday, April 8, 2009, at an undisclosed location owned by Carleton College.)” More about pasquelflowers here.
Bright Spencer alerted me to the sugar maples that are popping buds in our Hidden Valley Park neighborhood.
Re: an Arb blog. The arboretum student naturalists occasionally post “Arb Notes” on Carleton’s “Shrinking Footprints” blog. The last such posting, however, was on March 3rd.
It is too windy to get a decent photo right now, but our big sugar maple has about a foot of new growth on many of the branches and tiny leaf buds all over. There are leaf buds on the five foot high white lilac bush, too.
I didn’t know about the Shrinking Footprints blog, Rob. Thx!
I got this comment from someone named ‘Shy Arb Lover’:
Good point.
I’ve changed it from:
“The Arb has a web page devoted to spring but alas, it’s canned text/photos”
to:
“The Arb has a web page devoted to spring but alas, the text/photos there are brochure-like, true for all springs, not current for this spring.”
Rob and Bright, thx for the new photos. I’ve added them to the blog post above.
[...] Northfield has had it with cold weather. (Haven’t we all!) So, he’s put out a call for signs of spring. I spent a little time working in the yard today and came up with three [...]
Griff: I found a few more signs of spring, which you can check out here: http://mynortherngarden.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/a-few-more-signs-of-spring/
I saw the Spring Creek beavers this morning. Their dam held all winter. I saw a pair of hooded mergansers on spring creek too. I’ve seen herons including a green one that likes to hang out near the beaver dam.
has anyone seen the loons? I wonder if they returned this year?
The arb actually has two blogs! Rob mentioned the Arb Notes, which have their own home on the Arb site, along with a news blog, though neither is updated with Griff-worthy regularity. For a more personal approach, you can make also friends with Cowling Arboretum on Facebook!