Outside, planted last fall. I plant them high and without mulch, as they are prone to rot.

digits,

Sounds good, and easy to dance to.

I never got around to posting this, but I noticed way back the beginning of January that my snow crocus were already coming up. We were having lots of warm weather, and I was worried that theyd start budding and then freeze, so I was praying for COLD, and we got it. The foliage still continues to grow, but no sign of buds yet. Next time it warms up for two or three weeks in a row, Im gonna get buds and just have to hope it doesnt get cold enough to freeze them!

By now my "regular" crocus are coming up too, and the daffodils on the warmest side are upa couple of them are 6" high already, but most of them are still short.

A bunch of the perennials are starting to get new growth at the base too, but thats all the kind of stuff that likes the cold weather, so Im not really worried about them. It sure is nice to be able to go looking and find signs of "new life!" The resurrection has begun!

Skybird

Outside, planted last fall. I plant them high and without mulch, as they are prone to rot.

Ah, so these are sets?

Dan

I loved reading the reports that some folks have crocuses coming up - and even daffodils sprouting already. I planted some daffodils in the fall and checked on them yesterday, but no sign of any growth here in Buena Vista. But the chives, onions, and garlic in raised planter beds are definitely showing a few green shoots of new growth despite the nights being absolutely frigid here since my last post. Really makes you appreciate how resilient Mother Nature is.

Dorothy

Wow, Skybird, I am amazed that you have daffodils coming up already! It was a balmy 37º today, so I took a stroll around the yard. The snow cover is now at about 30% in the frontyard, which faces south, and about 75% on the east and north sides of the house. The ground is still frozen solid, but there were a few perennials that kept some green at the base over the winter. Don't know if there is any growth on the chives yet, since most of that bed is still under several inches of snow. The oregano and thyme were peeking out, and have quite a bit of green on them though : )

We haven't had a lot of big snows, like David has, but our temps have stayed consistently cold, and we've had over 10 weeks of snow cover now. I am soooooo ready for spring's arrival!

BTW, I ordered a Rovada Red Currant yesterday. Can anyone tell me how long it usually is till the first harvest? This is year three for our apple trees, and I'm hoping this is the year we get to taste our first one.

Bonnie

Dan,

Yes, sets. I have started them from seeds, but that takes 2 years till harvest.

but no sign of any growth here in Buena Vista.

The BH/s family has a hunting camp way up Chalk Creek past St Elmo. You are making me anxious for summer to get up there and hunt mushrooms!!

I have started them from seeds, but that takes 2 years till harvest.

I was prepared to be impressed with all your garden space Katy... ;o)

Dan

Up Chalk Creek past St Elmo is a lovely area, Dan. Enjoy all the time you can up there this coming season - and happy hunting, both for game - and mushrooms!

Dorothy

Here's a from my first trip up there, we ran out of containers to put shrooms in, barely scratched the surface of what was up.

We'll be in your neighborhood, sunshine, 2-3 x this summer, maybe up the pass and over to Taylor R. too...

:o)

Dan

Oh my goodness! Those are mushrooms? At first I thought they were pot pies, LOL. Those things are ginormous!

King boletes, Boletus edulis - not the biggest ones we found. We're counting on this being a good year and are hitting the area according to the rains if we can beat the commercial guys in.

Dan

Yowsa! When they offer the annual mushroom collecting classes here in town, I had no idea the mushrooms were THAT big - and even larger, you say! Holy Moley! And how are you preserving them for use? Freezing? Drying?

Dorothy

Depends on the type of shroom Dorothy. Boletes-slippery jacks-similar need to be processed PDQ into creams, soups, stocks, etc. Chanterelles, oysters, etc can be dried and frozen (I still have some from several years ago and use it in chili-stew), you can powder as well in a coffee grinder.

We went up over Cottonwood last July and spent time looking around for good grounds and that looks pretty promising up thataways too, dry last year so didn't see any. We suspect that the bulk commercial pickers get up in there as the access is easy.

Sounds funny, but if you can take kids with you, they find them much more efficiently - closer to the ground and they love to be better than adults at something. Esp. morels.

Dan

This reminds me of a couple of tales, here by the fire in the 27th Winter Storm Warning of the season .....

Once upon a time, in the rain forests of West Africa when the mushroom season had started, I asked a guy that worked with me to take the pickup, go where the folks were bringing them out of the forest, and buy me a dollars worth to try. I handed him a small sack. He came back with the truck bed just about filled to the brim.

In the high Mopane forests of Zambia, there is a species of huge, edible mushrooms. Linked is a decent example. When they first open up, you can slice these things and cook them like a steak.

I have posted this picture before but I didn't have a camera Friday, when I walked along the little creek that runs thru a park not far from my home. Some years, this is such an incredibly welcome sight:

I suppose that the grass is turning green here. It really must be but the change is so incremental and slow. Yesterday afternoon, there were bugs flying about in the remarkably warm sunshine. But, there was a robin in the tree across the road just after New Years Day and I've only seen 4 since. And, 2 of those were in Minneapolis where I also saw low temperatures in the single digits.

They are having an especially snowy winter in the Twin Cities, I was told. It didn't look like too much after the record-breaking snow we had in 'o8-'o9 but I was more comfortable returning to the 6-8°F above normal temperatures we are having here this winter.

. . . a daffodil in your yard . . . robin singing merrily in your tree . . . lawn violet . . . door-to-door salesperson popping up . . ?

Steve

Spring is coming? The only way I can tell is by the calender on my desk. 100% snow cover on my acreage, including the drive. Can't see out my west facing windows for snow. I wanted to dig out a stack of lumber near my greenhouse yesterday but the nearly four feet of ice and snow was a strong deterrent to my 58 year old back.

I've worked outdoors in the San Juan area of Colorado for 39 years and I don't recall a more consistently cold, below normal nor cloudier winter though I haven't looked at the records to verify that. Highs have been 10 degrees and more below average for 3 months now. Durango's average high today is 50 or 51, I think. El Nino, I guess. Still much better than the Northern Plains farm I grew up on.

My summer cabin is at 10,700' and not too far from Red Mtn. Pass and I bet there's 7-8 feet there. I ought to have snow most of the summer up there for cooling my beer outside.

You know what they say here: If summer happens on a weekend this year, we'll play golf. I wait until July 1 to pull the polyethylene off my 8'x20' cold frame because I usually get a late June freeze.

Mark

Well, today I noticed that my garlic is a couple of inches high and my strawberries are showing a couple of new leaves. Hard to believe such a little green can change my mood so quickly!

I think today may be the day when I finally break up the ice bank that's been sitting at the end of our (north-facing) driveway for the past two months. Over ten years in this house and I've never seen anything like it.

I spotted my first rocky mountain bluebird of the season when I went for a walk today. It was a gloriously sunny, warm, and windless day here, and I came home with my shoes wet from walking in slush, and muddy from stepping in puddles.

Dorothy

Let me issue a correction. I said my acreage is 100% snow covered. Not true. The 25 or so ponderosa pines on the property have "bared up" tree wells. Slipped into one yesterday and like to never got out back up over the surrounding snow. Darn near had to call "search and rescue". This winter has only been slightly snowier than average but nothing will melt because it's been so dadburned cold. My Siberian huskies are even sick of it, I think.

Mark

I decided to take a walk in my backyard yesterday after reading Sunshines post about the "gloriously sunny, warm and windless day!" Ive been spending the last couple weeks down in my basement, organizing and cleaning stuff up, and finding stuff to throw out, but when I realized how nice it really was I "took a break" outside. It was beautiful, and I discovered that the snow crocus I mentioned further up this thread are now blooming! The yellow ones at least. The purple ones always seem to come up and bloom laterI can see the tops of the foliage, but definitely no buds yet. I took a pic of the yellow ones today, and will try to find time to download them and post oneas encouragement for everyone that spring really IS comingespecially for Mark and the other folks around here that are still buried under snow!

It was 65 here yesterday and today and almost all of my snow has melted off by now, but the backyard is still squishy wet. Not really a fun place to be walking around in, tho there is still some stuff that needs to be cut back and cleaned up before it gets growing too much. At least half of my perennials are showing signs of growth at the base, and some of them, the early ones like the saxifrage, the forget-me-nots, and some other stuff are very obviously growing at this point. My few primroses that always try to keep blooming all winterbut couldnt this year because they were buried under snow much of the time (not that I got that much snow, but like Mark said, it just didnt melt!), have a couple open flowers at this point, but theyre still way too feeble looking to bother taking a picture of.

Its exciting to see things getting going again, and I hope it dries out enough that I can go out to start getting some stuff done soonafter I finish up in the basement! :-)

Happy spring all,
Skybird

P.S. Mark, maybe next time youre out hiking around the pines you should take the huskies with youcomplete with a keg of rum! ;-)

Skybird,
I thought I was in my basement- then I remembered. I don't have a basement. That's snow covering my windows and making my house dark. I guess I need to spend winters in Arizona where I can collect mineral specimens (my favorite thing to do).

Mark

Colorado in summer and Arizona in winter is my idea of heaven.

The ice at the bottom of the driveway is gone! I spent some trimming junipers today. It's a good chore to get out of the way.

I overwintered about 12 containers of geraniums in the greenhouse which are now coming into full bloom. It was warm enough to let them spend the day outdoors today, along with 2 big pots of nasturtiums I started back in late November that are just starting to bloom now. It sure looked nice to see a whole row of flowering containers in the yard when there is still so much snow all around! The snow has already melted from about half my back lawn, so I shoveled the higher piles of snow in a thin layer onto the exposed lawn and perennial bed where it will melt in a hurry, as well as provide some water. My husband, who is not a gardener himself, stood at the patio door for a few minutes, shaking his head at his crazy wife who was rearranging the snow.

Dorothy

Greetings from Durango, Siberia, U.S.S.R. (Oh, that's right, our empire fell a while back.)

We are so excited here! The predicted high for tomorrow is 40! A veritable heat wave. That's only 13 degrees below our average of 53.

Gosh, I hope I can plant my garden before August 1, this year.

Yesterday, at noon, a ufo appeared in our southern sky for about 3 minutes. It was very bright and yellow. Anyone else seen one of those lately?

I know I've seen that thing before, but it was so long ago that I can't remember what they called it.

Can anyone answer just one question? Is this last winter or next winter?

Mark

Uh, yeah! I think your UFO was over here on the eastern slope today! It was hovering over the north end of Denver most of the day.

I just checked NOAA, and its supposed to be UFOy down there on Friday, and its supposed to be partly UFOy and gettin near 50 on Saturday. Hope theyre rightfor your sake! But now Im gonna be downright mean! It was 60 here yesterday and I was out in the backyard cleaning up some of the perennialsand I got too hot! But no good thing lasts forever, and its just about freezing out there nowwith a chance for snow!

Hang in there! Itll get better! Just close your eyes and dream of that beautiful view you have from your cabin!

So you can see (or feel) Russia from your house, huh?

;-)
Skybird

A little way up I said my snow crocus were starting to bloom and that Id post a picture! Well, here it is for everyone who needs a fix right now! The really amazing thing to me is that the first one was taken on March 3rd, and the second one was taken in exactly the same place on March 9th, only SIX days later. These things are going crazy!

My regular crocus also have visible buds now, the daffodils continue to grow, but no buds yet, and a couple of the hyacinths are already just barely visible at the top of the mulch.

Snow crocus - 03.03.10

Snow crocus - 03.09.10

Its not gonna be so nice around here tomorrow, but spring is definitely on the way!
Skybird

Skybird,
Your crocus are beautiful. Definitely inspiring. I planted my crocus just this fall...of course, I went a bit crazy with bulbs. I got a TON of them, and did I label???Nope - not really like me as I am a planner with my garden - but it will be a surprise :) I do have quite a bit of little green poking up beneath the lasagna gardening. A little green is better than no green.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. Was down in the springs picking up some gear for my annual training in Hawaii and visiting my mom. Trying to get her on to gardenweb. Her garden is going to be amazing too. I was walking around in a tank top. Upon my return to denver at 2pm....snow flakes. Now - burrrrrrrrrrrr. A high of 38 degrees today.

Thanks for the inspiration of your crocus!!!!

Skybird,

Beautiful crocus, or is it croci? At Vallecito, the wild pasque flowers bloom in profusion among the pines beginning in mid April. Seeing them, especially at the upper end of the lake would be worth a drive from Denver. They look like a hairy crocus and bloom just after the snow melt. In fact, I refer to them as wild crocus, although I have no idea to what family they belong.

My mention of the former U.S.S.R. was only meant as a weather, not political metaphor. Politically, I'd have to refer to the "new" Durango (our county is a victim of large growth and the resulting political change in recent years) as a "people's republic".

I have a couple of pictures of those pasque flowers, I think. Maybe I could post them if I could figure out how. Maybe even a thread on how to transplant and establish that pretty little wild flower. I've tried twice, but failed.

Mark

I know I've seen that thing before, but it was so long ago that I can't remember what they called it.

Decades ago I was observing weather in the CA Central Valley, and we had one year where the tule fog stuck around for ~ 10-12 days, left for a day, then stuck around for ~16 days, visibilities no more than 1/4 mile and ceilings no more than 6-700 feet - thick, dense fog and dark, dark cold days. Anyway, I was on shift when the fog broke the second time and I did a local observation to the airfield personnel that the fog was breaking to the east, and about 15 minutes later it all broke, and you could see all sorts of people outside, and it seemed soon thereafter every one of them called to thank me for letting them see the sun as it broke thru.

Probably the height of my popularity. ;o)

And skybird, stop showing off. You're making us all jealous.

Dan

Wow! I never knew what the plural of crocus was, so, after laughing at croci, I decided to look it upalways assumed it was crocus! Its all over the board! WikiAnswers says its crocus. Wikipedia says its crocuses or croci, but refers to them in the plural as crocuses. Merriam-Webster online says its crocus, crocuses, or croci, with croci pronounced -kee, -ky, or -sy. NEVER would have gone with kro-sigh! Or even with kro-key, since in the botanical Latin I know an "i" at the end of a word is always pronounced "eye!" As Im typing this, Word accepts crocuses as correct, but doesnt like croci at all, and my AOL email thinks the same way that Word does!

So who knows what the "real" plural of crocus is!!! Not I! And Ill continue to word my sentences so I can just keep using "crocus" and have it sound right! :-)

I was just joking around with my reference to Russia, Mark. Couldnt resist as I had just seen a reference to "that remark" on TV recently!

But re: your comment about the Peoples Republic of Durango, I commented somewhere else around here lately that that place has just gotten WAY too big for its britches! I had to go straight through it a couple years ago when I came down 550 off of Red Mountain, and now I do my best to stay on 160 to avoid "The City" when Im down there on vacation! I prefer to remember is like it was in the Olde Daystwo-lane roads and NO stop lights!

Is this the pasque flower you have down there, Mark?

If so, its Pulsatilla patens, previously Anemone patens, and Rocky Mountain Pasque Flower is one of its common names. Its a Colorado native. I love the fuzzy, fuzzy buds, and theyre so obvious since the buds/flowers come up before the foliage. I thought I had a better picture of the buds with lots more of them, but I cant find it right now!

This was one of "those things" I always wanted when I was selling them, and shortly after I moved in here (and out of the rental house) I bought one. Ive tried the other, more commonly sold onesPulsatilla vulgarisbut they just didnt seem to do as well for me, and I dont remember that they had the soft fuzzy buds either. In the yard theyll rebloom at least once, and sometimes twice, if deadheaded promptly. How many mountainsides do you think you could deadhead in a day, Mark? ;-) Those are old Pulsatilla pics, BTW. Mine seems to be coming up unusually slowly this year!

Post your pics too, Mark, so we can compare them. Do you have a photo hosting site? Thats what you need to be able to post them here. I didnt know how to do it back in 07 after I got my first "unreal" (digital!) camera, so I asked for help here and got LOTS of it! Ill link the thread on the bottom. I love Picasa! You can download your photos into Picasa, edit them if you want to, then you transfer them to Picasa Web Albums, and from there you have links to post them online. The thread Im linking is a long, rambling oneit was kinda one of our fun RMG "conversations," but the real serious information about Picasa starts down around May 1. But theres miscellaneous stuff about other photo hosting sites further up in the thread too! If you already have somewhere where you can download them and edit them, I understand you can use something like Photobucket to easily post them. If youre not sure youre doing it right the first time, dont be afraid to try. Nobody around here is gonna laugh at you! Im betting there are other people around here again wondering how to do it, because back when I started that thread a couple other people piped up that they had been wondering how to do it too but felt too dumb to ask how. I just dont mind sounding dumband I know everybody around here is friendlyas that thread proves!

Dont we ALL go crazy when were buying bulbs, Red? (Arent you still in a rental?) I usually wind up not getting most of what I buy planted, and they wind up helping to "enhance" my compost pile! I was good last fall and didnt buy any moreI have other, less expensive stuff to put on the compost pile! But I bet that by the time you get back from your two weeks, youll have flowers!

My "not so nice" day today turned out to be a lot nicer than "they" were predicting! Its up to 55 in the backyard, and the suns been shining most of the day. Supposed to be up to almost 60 on Saturday!

Anybody else have spring flower picturesor spring "progress" pics to post here yet?

Skybird

P.S. Digit, I LOVED your little snowdrops picture up above. Just didnt get around to replying when you posted it!

My sedum 'Dragon's Blood' is spectacular against the light-brown gravel and the Crocus zonatus are up but of course don't bloom 'til Oct, so I got nothin' compared to the braggart above. ;o)

Daffies just clearing the mulch and a couple tulips, but that's it. I'm hoping I can keep enough lettuce and spinach for a pot luck at the end of the month, but it's pretty tasty and not sure it's going to make it...

Dan

Skybird,

Our pasque flowers are slightly different but certainly the same species. I looked back for some pictures and I have a few but no great ones. Since I'm an old geezer and computer illiterate, I don't know how to post a picture. I'll send you a couple. When they bloom this spring (early September, ha ha) I'll try to get some better pictures.

I love those flowers. Another beautiful place to view them is in the Amphitheater, just above Ouray. The slopes next to Haviland Lake are also carpeted with pasque flowers. Haviland is between Purgatory Ski Area and Durango.

By the way, that big bright, yellow ufo was visible all day today. It traveled quite slowly, coming into view in the eastern sky before 7 a.m. and finally disappearing behind the mountain to the west at six. Wonder what it is?

Mark

And which braggart might that be, Dan? LOL! Keep in mind that I said those pasque flowers are NOT blooming in my yard yet this year! The second pic was taken on March 14, 08, and this year I can just BARELY see that theyre starting to come up. The top pic was taken on April 3, 09, and theres no way theyre gonna be that far along by the beginning of April this year! Oh, well! Theyll get there, but the only thing I have blooming so far are the snow crocus! I did notice today that the regular crocus are getting really close to opening.

And, thank you! You didnt even know it, but you answered one of my questions! I got some crocus zonatus at last years Fall Swap, and didnt get them in the ground till WAY late. Have never grown them before and didnt have a clue what to expect, but really wasnt expecting to see anything before late summer, so when they started to come up like gang busters, I was wondering if they were gonna bloom this spring since I planted them so late! So the foliage comes up in spring, and then they dont bloom till fall? I got a Colchicum at the Fall Swap of 08, and it didnt get foliage or flowers till late summerbut then it was absolutely beautifulbut it only came up and bloomed the one year, and apparently died, because I havent seen it since. I need to get a couple more of those! The flowers reminded me of orchid cactus blooms. It was a WOW plant!

And if anybody wants to see the "wildflower meadows" Mark has down where he lives, here are the pics he emailed me of his pasque flowers. Im not sure if its exactly the same species I have or not, but its sure close if its not the same. The flowers arent as obvious as my closeups since theyre "out in nature!" I bet its wonderful to see them growing out there in person!

And, one more! Talk about having something to brag about! This is the view of "Storm Peak and Velocity Basin" from Marks cabin above Silverton! Howd you like to be lookin at that from your deck? Yowza!
(Click on any of the pics to enlarge)

Glad to hear you were all UFOy around there today, Mark!

Skybird

P.S. Mark, what time of the year was it when you tried transplanting the Pulsatilla before?

I tried to transplant them when they were blooming, a mistake I'm sure.

I decided to speed things up yesterday so I took a snow shovel and extension ladder to the tulip/ daffodil bed. The ladder slipped when I was crawling out- I'd sure hate to fall that far.

(Just kidding- a little)

Mark

Pretty sure there's sun everywhere in Colo and much of the eastern half of the Intermountain West today:

{{gwi:1190334}}

And that mackerel sky to the east is a sure indicator of wind.

Zoiks!

Dan

A bug!! my first sign of impending spring. Sure we are still under snow cover but this bug is a good sign.

Even if it is freezing out, I usually open a door due to the heat from the sun blasting in through all the windows. I don't get bugs flying in through the door in winter! Today, I left the front door open for half an hour and, lo and behold, a fly blew in.

I know, exciting, huh?

Was it a good bug?

Dan,

What caused the rotation of that storm today? Is that more common in spring than winter? If I'm not mistaken, isn't that more common on the Front Range than SW Colorado?

Regards,
Mark

That is a little more like a spring low pressure system, Mark. That low is closed in circulation very far up the atmosphere and the winds are pretty strong wrapping around the low, causing decent circulation and good energy. Albeit the moisture got wrung out before it got here, sparing another dump up there. Should be strong weather for TX but cut off from good moisture and best energy so big spring tornadoes are still a ways off.

Still waiting for Pineapple Express and classic El Niño flow, though. Still waiting...but our East Coast and Southern Europe have had enough of this winter, so they'll wait some more, surely.

Dan

It was just a fly.

Dan, I'm not sure what all that weather-talk means but it sure was a great day for snowshoeing! Snow was falling, we were going up hill for a couple hours but, man, was it nice and "warm". We even took off our hats and let the snow cover our hair. Southern Europe? I guess that's why some friends in, well just outside of, Barcelona were snowed in a few days ago.

I AM looking forward to spring but winter sure is fun right now.

Dan,

In my 39 winters here I've witnessed numerous El Nino's. Most result in a wetter and colder than average winter (it seems from memory) here in SW Co. This winter has been slightly above average in terms of moisture and extremely cold, especially in terms of daily highs. Clouds and inversions. Isn't that somewhat consistent with a "classic" El Nino? Also, a drier north is the norm under that scenario, isn't it?

Regards,
Mark

For Colo, Mark, it is within variance that the pattern is 'normal' El Niño, but for many parts of the globe, the moisture has gone elsewhere. I was in Seattle in early Feb. and they had just experienced their warmest January ever, but their moisture is lagging, and CA is ~above normal, but the Pineapple Express is always just around the corner. I just looked at the upper-air charts and sure enough the ridge is off of Western Europe, but that's it...

Dan

Dan,

I read somewhere that much of our weather originates in the vicinity of Hawaii. Is that accurate? Is that the Pineapple Express to which you refer?

Also, I thought that the Nortwest was more likely than not to experience a dry winter when an El Nino has set up. Is that not correct? Just wondering.

Isn't the wet weather of the Northeast a bit unusual during an El Nino winter?

Thanks, Mark

Thanks,
Mark

In the PACNW, Mark, the Child brings drier than normal after Jan 1, but this year the period before Jan 1 was even drier than normal for an El Niño year in many areas up there. My friends in Wenatchee are less than 50% of normal precip, and their vineyard popped more than 3 weeks earlier than normal. As far as the east coast, I never did weather there so don't have that experience - west coast and central Europe. Lastly the Pineapple Express is where the jet stream turns at HI and goes straignt NE into our west coast - where it lands gets dumped with warm rain for days. Much of our winter weather comes out of the gulf of AK, but some does come from the area of HI.

But back OT: lots of daffies poking their leaves out lately and I see some tulips starting and the leftover clover is starting to spread in the veggie garden...

Dan

last night we got ~ 8 - 12 in :( i don't think anything is growing here :(sadness ): but i have started some things inside so that they can be big before the deer and chipmunks eat them ;) i also planted daffodils and other early flowering plants but the chipmunks/squirrels/annoying little rodents move them around it makes for a very ....interesting spring/summer not knowing where something is going to pop up ;) also i am VERY jealous of you who have little to no snow AND plants coming up WHHHHHAAAAAAA WHEN IS IT GOING TO BE SPRING?! *sigh* i want it to be spring, we should just skip winter/snow all together ;)

Yeah, things are finally starting to green up. Mostly weeds, alas, but green is green.

One of my tomato seeds has sprouted already! I'm pretty excited about that.

yes but it is GREEN instead of browns and greys and whites (snow) although i do have some green but it is just the "evergreen" trees like ponderosa, pines, ect. ect

I know that it has been a lot warmer up here this year than in Colorado so this may just be some encouragement for some of you. And, I'm only going to make one more post on this thread because, it really felt like spring here today. The thermometer said 64°F, the warmest day so far this year. It has already started to rain so . . . it isn't all sun and lawn violets.

But yes there are, at least 6 lawn violets blooming in my yard! And, in just about the warmest and most sheltered location hereabouts, I discovered the snowberry bushes were leafing out!

Steve

And life gets more exciting with each passing day
And love is either in your heart or on its way.

Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth
To be young at heart.
For as rich as you are, it's much better by far
To be young at heart.

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you'll derive, out of being alive.
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.