Crocuses

One of the things I have always loved about living in the Pacific Northwest is our short winters. Just eleven days ago, I wrote about the day’s worth of snowfall we received. Today I saw the first signs of spring.

Our weather has been fairly mild over the past few days. I noticed our thermometer reach just above 60 degrees today. To be sure, that’s quite warm for us. But it’s also not unusual for us to get our first glimpse of spring around this time of the year.

As I was cleaning the house this grey and drizzly day, I was standing in our backyard shaking out my duster when I happened to look down and notice our crocuses coming up. Seeing that definitely brought a smile to my face.

Before the fading afternoon light completely went away, I grabbed my camera to document my discovery. The best photo I took was somewhat underexposed and required a little postproduction brightening:

I know much of the country has been shivering over recent weeks. But during that time, it thankfully never got that cold here. While I’m always concerned about the effect that mild temperatures have on our mountain snowpack—we depend on that for our water during the dry months—a good part of me never complains about seeing the first signs of spring.