SPRING? Is That You?

Typically, it begins feeling like spring to me when the first geese appear on Lake Kahnke.  However, I actually took this picture because I wasn't completely sure that they hadn't frozen there in place.  This cool weather does not upset me, though.  In my line of work, keeping track of what the weather does from year to year is part of the gig.  I know that it isn't normal to have 70-degree days in March; at least not in Minnesota.  I also know, that unseasonably warm days can be bad for the plants.  Slow and steady really is preferable, while not quite as fun. 

Just for kicks, while writing this, I decided to look back at what the weather was really like last March.  It's amazing to me how deceptive our memories are.  We had a few really warm days last year, but we're not really that far off schedule.  I think the local meteorologists have lead us down a rather negative path and I'm about to take a detour.  

As Bob Dylan so aptly put it, "A Change is Gonna Come."  I actually just stepped out of my office to try to catch a photo of the birds I have been hearing sing their little beaks off as I sit here at my desk.  Unfortunately, the sun has become draped in clouds and it is difficult to capture the cheeriness of blackbirds singing on a dreary day.  You get the idea, though.  While temps are expected to hover in the "ho, hum" range for the foreseeable future, the critters seem to think that warmer weather is inevitable and far be it for me to question their logic.  

What I CAN say, is that it is beginning to feel very much like spring beneath the cover of our greenhouses!  Check out what a difference a week makes in the pictures below.  On the left, is the "before" picture...

...on the right, the latter!  Of course, you can probably tell that I have taken a few liberties with these shots, but that is completely beside the point!  Never mind the fact that they are taken from different directions, in different lighting and the "after" pic has a positive little Instagram spin on it.  The point is, we need to focus on the positive right now. 

Excessive mud has been making life plenty interesting while we move plants from our potting annex to the perennial greenhouse.  Said mud forced me to make a temporary path out of flattened, plant boxes; so that morale wouldn't plummet to January levels during the moving process.  Of course, my cardboard path was immediately rained on.  This lured me into a false sense of security, regarding its mobility in the wind.  Needless to say, Mother Nature was a bit of a blow hard today; disassembling and disbursing my path over quite the impressive radius.  What could I do?  I picked it up, weighed it down with bricks and washed the mud from my hands.  At least it's not snow.  I must remind myself of the foot plus that the weather terrorists predicted less than a week ago.  Things could always be worse and I really do believe that this is spring.  At least it smells like spring!