Spring to winter to spring

We’ve had a gloriously beautiful spring so far.

The willows are leading the way in leafing out.

Everything else is lagging behind. The wild plums:

The oaks…

The ash tree…

The roses…

The apple trees…

The blackberries…

And the magnificent “one in a million” elm tree on a neighbor’s property (though you can see the start of buds from a distance).

But the trees are ready to burst. Take a look at these apple leaf buds:

Some early flowers are making their appearance:

And the grass is looking positively emerald.

And then, suddenly, the weather did a complete 180. Here comes a last blast of winter!

Sunday morning we woke up to a bit of snow.

It wasn’t bad, and in fact was rather pretty. Here are tracks as Mr. Darcy and I walked through the pasture.

But winter wasn’t quite done yet. Yesterday we woke up to four inches of the white stuff.

You can see the snow came with a bit of wind, since it plastered just one side of this tree.

The birds at the feeder looked a bit shell-shocked at this development.

And then, just like that, the snow melted and spring was back. We observed some deer lazying it up in a nearby field.

It’s still chilly at night – this morning the temp was 25F – but the sunshine is nice. Here the rising sun is hitting some snow still on a distant hill.

By midmorning today, the only snow left was an odd little dollop in front of the car.

We’re not quite done with winter yet – we have more forecasted, even though as likely as not it will peter out – but we’re definitely on the downhill side.

Let’s hear it for spring!