Below the snows...

It is rainy and cold today, I am really yearning for Spring. Especially after a taste of it at the Philadelphia Flower Show. We actually saw a clump of blooming Snowdrops and most of the snow had disappeared completely in Pennsylvania and Southern New York State. Here in the Adirondacks the snow can last into the month of May. In years past I have shoveled snow off my gardens, to find Helleborus (Lenten Rose) and Daffodils with sickly white leaves and buds, trying to struggle through wet heavy mounds of old snow. Within the day the leaves start greening. I hesitate to remove the snow too quickly because it acts as a blanket, when we get cold fronts which can drop temperature to 10 to 20 below zero. Last year the temperatures in April dropped and held at 20 below for almost 2 weeks. Many of the early small passerines (perching birds), such as Eastern Blue Birds could not find food and adequate shelter and froze to death. I actually found a pair in one of our nesting boxes that didn't survive, and dispaired that we wouldn't enjoy the wonders of observing the nesting process that spring. However, another pair arrived a few week later and we watched them nest twice that year.