I live in Oklahoma. This is supposed to be the coldest time of the year, with ice storms, freezing rain, and even the occasional snow. From January to early March is depths of our winter.
Apologies in advance for the blurry pictures. I am saving up to buy a better camera this Nikon I bought to replace the Canon that died is a terrible camera.
But this year has been unseasonably warm. We're not quite to record breaking warm on a day-by-day basis - there's always some date in history that was warmer on this day or that. But for overall warmest winter, I think we're pretty close.
Some of the earliest signs of spring in my yard are things like the henbit blooming, and the dandelions, and the wood violets, followed by the forsythia buds.
I have henbit blooming.
I have wood violets budding.
No pics - it was worse than the henbit pic.
I have dandelion blossoms and dandelions already sending up stems topped with their iconic ball of seeds.
And my forsythias - the ones that survived the brutal summer - have teeny buds forming, as does my pecan tree.
The mints are up.
The blackberries have new tips.
The lavender bloomed twice last year, and is getting ready to send up pre-bloom stalks already.
The roses are budding.
And the bachelor buttons have leafed up already. Some are beginning to send up shoots.
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It's too early to be planting the spring garden, because we may yet get some ice storms, and then I'd lose the crops.
And yet, it's so warm this winter that nothing has really died.
The bugs are going to be really bad this summer. Fleas and flies in particular. However, with the drought, the mosquitoes will be reduced. Which means reduced dragonflies, too.