Spring, Finally

First Daffodil Bloom

 Spring is late to this area.  After a very snowy and bitterly cold February, there were signs of spring the end of the first week of March.

Maple Tree

None of the trees in the yard showed any signs of leaf budding until the end of the first week of March. The Bradford pears trees in the yard showed no signs of budding.

Hellebores Cinnamon Snow

I have several hellebores in the back yard under a stand of trees that usually bloom in February. This year many of the flowers just started to open the first week of March also. Many of the flower buds are still tightly closed.

Pansies

 I have four pots of pansies in railing pots on the deck that I planted last fall. They have been snowed on, frozen to single digits many times, and they are still alive. They looked brown and dead, but last week some green started showing through the winter damage. Two blooms appeared this week. 

Winter Holiday

Joshua Tree

 

My family took a weeks vacation in January to Palm Springs. One of the sights we visited was Joshua Tree National Park.  We visit a national park almost every year. We had visited Joshua Tree National ten years ago. It seemed to me that there were a lesser amount of Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) this time we visited.

Cholla Garden

 We saw the cholla garden in Joshua Tree National Park. Teddy Bear cholla (Opuntia bigelovii) also known as jumping cholla tend to grow in clustered formations.  They seem to jump at anything that brushes by as a way to propagate. They have barbed spines that make it hard to take them out of skin.

Rock Formation in Joshua Tree Nat Park

 There are many rock formations in the park that attract climbers.

Windmill Farm

We toured one of the several windmill farms in Palm Springs.  Winds come through the San Gorgonio Pass. There is enough wind energy to power almost the entire Coachella valley. There are over 3,000 wind turbines in Palm Springs, one of the largest in the United States.

Winter

First Snow

 

The first snow we had here was January 2, and it was very light.

Second Snow

The weather turned extremely cold and six days later we had 81/2 inches of snow. This is the same area of the yard as the first photo, and you can see the deer tracks in the snow.  We had bitterly cold weather (it did not get above freezing) as much of the country did for almost three weeks. We had single digit temps in the morning during that time. We finally got above freezing, and the snow which was ice hard, finally started melting.  We could finally see grass.

Yuletide Camellias

The three Yuletide Camellia bushes were still blooming at the first light snow  on January 2.

Yuletide Camellias

After all that freezing weather and snow, the Yuletide camellias are looking tired and worn. But there are still buds that haven't opened. We are supposed to get 50 degree temps one or two days this week.   At that time I will be checking on the helleborus plants in the backyard

Third Snow

We got our third snow storm (along with a lot of the country) of about 9 inches last night the 11th of February. We are looking at another storm next week.

Amaryllis

When I can't have flowers outside, I have them inside. One of my sons gave me this amaryllis bulb for Christmas and it finally bloomed a week ago. When it is so cold and snowy during the winter, our family likes to vacation for a week in a warm climate.  I will share photos from our January trip next time.