Signs of Spring

Now that Winter has finally loosed her grip on the Midwest, we are enjoying the early signs of Spring. The air is greenly fragrant with moist earth, Oestara has veiled herself in that glorious yellow-green of new leaves, and the flowering trees are a riot of color. Here's a picture of one of the redbuds in the backyard -- always so lovely for those few weeks between flower and leaf. The pollen count this wet spring, well, that's a different story. I think I am single-handedly keeping the makers of Claritin(r) in business.

The other sure sign of the season around here is the seed-starting trays that come out a few weeks before last frost. One thing makes me nuts, though -- the stupid cats like to sample the tiny leaves as they unfurl. Who knows why? The last straw was when they chewed my salad burnet down to bare stems. I asked Mike to build me a sprouting box, which is basically a big wire-mesh cage to protect the tender seedlings from maurading felines. Add a couple of grow-lites and a timer & voila, instant garden. The burnet is recovering nicely, thank you.