Nice shot. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful colour.

I hear mallards quacking in my back yard. For the past three years a pair of mallards have nested in my pine tree tops planters. I've been watching for them to return. The neighborhood kids and I enjoy seeing each day's new egg and waiting for the ducklings to hatch. The yarrow has some green growth and some tulips and daffodils on the east side of the house are starting to bud.

Good news! The ground is bare of snow here on the south coast of MA (of course we still have some gnarly piles of dirty snow)....but the lawn is green! And....I was pleasantly surprised today to see some golfers playing at the New Bedford Country Club! So golf has arrived in southern-most New England and will spread north over the next 4-6 weeks. Even though Nemo's snow is gone, the tree damage is extensive. Although there are lots of broken limbs here and there, what is most amazing is the shear number of uprooted trees. I **had** a very large cherry laurel....about 8 feet tall...full lush and of course evergreen. Nemo pulled the entire thing right out of the ground and then flattened it under 15 inches of heavy cement. I can't even budge it even though the snow is gone and the ground is soft and unfrozen. I guess I will cut it way back to primary branches, dig it up, and replant it. My large southern magnolia lost 2 branches, but overall did much better than I originally thought it did the day after Nemo. It is a bit misshapen now and I am wondering if it is time for a very aggressive pruning next month....to get it all tight and bushy again. I think the main message is....prune prune prune. The more you do it...correctly...the better the odds the tree or shrub will survive these historic events.

I haven't seen any hummers here yet, though I've have had the feeders out for a couple of weeks. I think I can get by at least one more week without mowing. Have been hearing mowers in my neighborhood, though. The daffodils that I planted with very cold fingers in December are still looking very beautiful, and I should have tulips blooming soon from the same planting. My butterfly bush is getting ready to bloom - much earlier than in the past. No irises yet. Hollyhocks and foxgloves filling out nicely. Lots of cosmos have come up already as have some larkspur. I know some think violets are intrusive, but the violets that cover my front yard are plump and beautiful this year. I've never seen the blooms grow so large. Ajuga is also blooming beautifully right now. This is all under my huge pecan tree that will shade everything out in a few weeks. Right now that area is still getting sun, though. Monarda is sprouting everywhere. I'll probably have to thin it out this year. On Easter Sunday I had a nice salad with the arugula, parsley and cilantro that overwintered. Spinach and lettuce should be ready for eating soon, too. No sign yet of my asparagus. I covered it over a few weeks ago with sand, some compost and manure, to make the spears grow stronger. Maybe should have done that in the fall, though. I hope I haven't smothered it for this year. usually I forget it's there until it has grown into a big, tall fern border. Those are a few signs I've noticed in my yard.