I think your birthday trip will help you out a bunch, I just looked at an overview of the new hotel atrium and it should be a great gettaway to feel a little warm air, smell damp soil and be around growing plants. Are you doing lunch? Even if you just treat yourself to a mid-day drink it should be nice.

We are back in the single digits tonight with fresh snow, so as long as things stay frozen my spring fever will be in remission..... but word is we are due for a warm spell next week. A warm spell with melting snow, stronger sun and a chance to poke around for bulb sprouts means the fever will fire up. Then I'll be in fidgety and in trouble.

DO you have any late winter bloomers such as witch hazel, snowdrops, crocus and winter aconite?

Here is a link that might be useful: re-opened hotel

Hey, thanks for posting that video! I hadn't seen that. I think it will help - it was a great idea to go there. I didn't go to the re-opening, so it will be neat to see what they've done. The hotel was pretty much wiped out by the flood, from what I understand. My mom did go to the reopening, and she says I'm going to really be interested in what they did with the gardens. And yes, the family is all going and having lunch at the hotel. Tried to book a massage at their spa, but Valentine's Day weekend - they were booked up.

No, I don't have any late winter bloomers and you're right, that's also part of the problem. Note to self: Crocuses, snowdrops, etc.

At this point, I would love to see brown and gray. All I can see is white. Still several feet of snow on the ground here. Well, actually, I did finally see the gray of my asphalt driveway this Sunday after chipping the layer of ice off parts of it... It will be awhile before my snowdrops and crocuses are up and seen!

Have fun on your birthday trip!
:)
Dee

Just remember, meteorological spring is here in just two weeks! (winter is over at the end of February).

Never mind that there will still be cold days and snow to come - spring has almost arrived.

Good grief, have I been feeling it this winter! It's been brutal! Last week we had high temps of 5-6 F for most of the week. Yesterday it got up to 48 F. I was outside in my shirtsleeves tossing snow from the Blvd. into the street to make it melt faster and make spring arrive sooner. (HA!) This annual ritual doesn't really work, but it sure makes me feel better.

Since most of the country seems to have had a really sucky winter, it would be interesting to see if mail order plant & seed companies do more business than usual. I know I'm ordering more than I usually do. For instance, usually I'm very frugal about ordering seeds. If I only want a couple of varieties from a particular company I don't order them just to avoid paying $5-6 in postage for 2 packs of seed. This year, I didn't care. If I wanted them, I ordered them. I also ordered a lot earlier than I usually do. It was pure magic when those seeds arrived!

I know we can still have a lot of snow this time of year, but the sun is higher in the sky and that spells hope. It's all about hope right now.

Kevin

What a miserable winter and I'm still dealing with a ice dam and leak at the back of the garage...but today it is already 46F at 10:00 AM! No snow in the 7 day forecast; even warmer temps predicted for the end of the week; and did I mention no snow in the 7 day forecast?? Feels like Spring in the air and I heard the male Bluebird singing a little outside today. :)

Aachenelf, I splurged on seeds this winter too; bought whatever pretty Digitalis, Aquilegia, Echinacea, annuals caught my fancy. For example bought a bunch of the Columbine Origami colors, $3.49 for 15 seeds. Even at that price, with shipping, seeds are still cheap compared to plants and a lot of other hobbies. They better all germinate though...

Don't you guys ever get out there and enjoy it? Bundle up and take a walk. Cross-country skiing, anyone? Snow-shoeing? How about pulling the kids around in a sled? Whatever, doesn't matter - just get outside and do something, anything. Not only will the exercise improve your state of mind, so will the fresh air. Yea, it's cold, and it's windy some days, but that's why they make protective clothing :0)

I LOVE starting seeds indoors - that can be something you can do to chase the winter blues away.

Cheer up, guys!

Oh, I'm out in it daily - I have two athletic Labrador Retrievers who do not do hibernation. This is their time of year - they love the cold weather. Nov-Mar is prime time for Labs.

Anyway...I agree that getting outside is good for your state of mind, and I have come to appreciate the beauty of the garden in winter because of my Labs - but what I miss is green, growing signs of life!

My birthday trip to Opryland Hotel was very good medicine for garden fever. The weather broke for us last weekend, and it was sunny and high 40s, which felt like a heat wave. It was awesome to be inside the glass atrium with all that sun shining through. I enjoyed the plants too. Entirely tropicals, which I know next to nothing about and aren't usually my cup of tea, but hey, beggars can't be choosers!

Today it is almost 60 outside and sunny. Doesn't feel like mid-February at all!

Is anyone else stalking your local garden center every few days to see if they have anything yet? :)

My camera is getting elderly and has been dropped once too often. But here's a blurry picture I took on the walk home from work today. Crocus tommasinianus and white heather. Hope it brings a breath of Spring to those of you still stuck in Winter.

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Flora, that's so gorgeous. Wow. I'd forgotten how early flowers come out in England. In the Niagara area we are more than two months away from any such view. It really has seemed like the endless winter this year. I actually salivate thinking about the new gardening season.

I took this yesterday. Let the flooding begin!

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Mother Nature is teasing us, 70 degrees one day, 40 the next!

But at least the first signs of Spring are appearing... buds are beginning to form on the trees, the first blooms in my rock garden have appeared, and you can tell the winter birds are preparing for their long trip north... eating food faster then I can put it out!

That 82+ inches of snow that fell on my little green acre in January? There's still over 48 inches of it right where it fell only now it's turned to ice. Haven't been able to get to my birdfeeders in the crabapple tree since mid-December so I set up a couple of feeders on my breezeway. The squirrels find them easier to jump on since they can use the railing as a springboard. When my winter sowing containers begin sprouting I'll have to guess whether it's the seed type written on the milk jug or safflower, millet, sunflower, etc. instead.

Am I ready for spring? How's this for an answer?

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Well we are currently at -4 degrees and 30 mph winds making the roads ice covered. More snow forecast for Thurs. when it's supposed to warm up a little and they're already talking about another storm for early next week. I have drifts in my yard that are taller than I am. Yes, I'm vertically challenged at 5'3" but still. Enough already!

I really feel for you all, I don't think I could cope with winters like those. Today we are moaning about the cold North Easterly bringing us a 'freezing' wind from mainland Europe. It's 43 f outside. Risk of going down to 32 tonight. Brrrrr.

Outside my house this morning.

The milk's arrived ....

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And so have the daffodils (the violas have been going all winter.)
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Gotta love those cheery little faces and the daffs too.

Oh, those daffs and violas really cheered me up! Thanks for posting them. :) They look beautiful together.

Well, I saw the first Forsythia in full bloom today! And the earliest of my daffs are up too. I've been stalking the garden centers, waiting to see some activity, and today at lunch they had finally gotten some shipments in. I bought an Arp Rosemary and three Autumn Ferns. All are small, but it felt soooo good to take home some plants! :D

Beautiful day today and took a snowshoe trek out the "back 40" this AM. Even though the temp. was 10^F the sun was warm; being high in the sky compared to Jan.

Saw deer, coyote, fox and turkey tracks and boiled some water at the lean-to for coffee. The temp. in the lean-to on my black pant leg was 80^F! With beautiful days like today spring can wait - it will anyhow usually in April after "mud season".

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Oh my, squire John, those photos are remarkable, especially on March 3.

I'm trying to be patient here, but I'm having mixed results.

Here are a few more (from last year) to make you smile:

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:D Oh, I love that first one, peeking out from behind a tree! I bought Acatea Daffodil last fall, which looks similar to this - I can't wait to see it!

Thank you for sharing the pics. I also love the first one, it looks like it's playing hide and seek!