Notes From Zone 4

Usually, we have gold and purple finches all winter long, and they segregate themselves when eating the thistle feed at our feeders. But we haven’t seen a purple finch since last fall, and we missed them! But they are back. A flock landed in our yard today, and have been eating sunflower seeds rather than thistle, which is a bit strange for them.

The ground has gotten so bare in just a couple of days that I can see daffodil foliage already. Amazing. The crocus shoots are out as well, though we still don’t have any actual blossoms.

The pond is still frozen solid, however. But you can see the ice that covers it, rather than just the snow. Soon we’ll see if the fish survived the long winter.

We went to the Keene Flower Show today, and enjoyed pretending that it was spring. It was pretty crowded for a Friday afternoon, but not so crowded that it wasn’t fun. We took Ginny with us, and she seemed to enjoy it as well.

The only thing I bought for the garden were lily bulbs. I got 25 Oriental lilies and 20 Asiatic from Maplecrest Lilies, who were vending at the show. I also couldn’t resist a couple of sprays of cut flowers as well. I had them separate them by color, because I want to control where I plant them out, rather than just randomly putting the colors all mixed up. I didn’t buy any additional Star Gazer lilies, because the ones we planted two years ago did so well, but I don’t think I need any more. I want to find somewhere else to line the path with lilies. Hmmm.

And back in the real word. our pond is just starting to show. We can see the frozen ice now, and clear water around the edges.