It can’t be long now, right around the next corner.  Despite the latest cold spell, daffs and hyacinths are popping up everywhere, and inside, my tomato seedlings are all emerging.  Daisy-like dill flowers are like a sign of good things to come.

Tomorrow is supposed to be around 60º, so I think I’ll be prepping the veg garden for later direct-seeding.

Did you know, the trumpet part of a daffodil is called the corona?  With all the corona virus panic, I thought I’d inject that cheerier note.

Here are ravens in budding trees against a clear blue sky yesterday.

Here it is snowing again today!  Imagine that!  I attempted this video, hope it plays.

And some stills…

Never fails–every time I talk spring-talk, it inevitably snows and freezes!  I’ve been put in my place again.  Never assume anything in E. TN.  Here’s your  obligatory flowers-in-snow- image.

I can say, my baby tomato etc. seeds have just begun to germinate as of this morning, after one week!  No ambiguity there.  There’s hope.  I can even take closeups now.  Here’s proof…

It’s in the 50s, pouring down rain again, or maybe I should just note when it isn’t raining these days.  It’s weird to think it’s snowy and cold where my son is in St. L.  Even fake spring is alright with me (aside from the climate change implications).  I just pretend and go about my gardening.

Misu says blah; if I can’t get outside, I’d rather keep hibernating up in my closet nest.  So decadent.

Seriously, it’s 64º out!  I have to keep reminding myself it’s February.  I spent some time out in the field stomping down some dead stuff, and found a half-dozen more cedars!  It’s going to be a micro-forest out there.

We’re surrounded by daffodils, crocuses, grape hyacinth, and those little purple-flowered weeds.  And a cheater tulip in the window.

We did it–we early-voted!  It wasn’t scary!  The location we chose was much more like the voting I’m used to in the northeast and mid-atlantic–large turnout, and helpful, efficient, knowledgable staff.  Of course, down here, most of the county candidates are on the repub ballot, not the dem, so that’s still disappointing, but this was mainly about the presidential preference anyway.  I won’t give away my choice, but you can guess who it wasn’t! 

I just ask each of us to stop, think about the cost of this dangerous loudmouthed bully to our country and world, and hold ourselves and our representatives accountable.  We will have to answer to our kids and our own consciences for our decisions or lack thereof.  Examine the facts in front of us, don’t just blindly trust propaganda.  There’s a lot at stake in this coming election.  Thank you, end of spiel.

The folks at the voting location were practically throwing extra stickers at me–good publicity, they said!  Unlike some places in the past that were too cheap to even have enough stickers.  I’m a big sticker fiend, as anyone familiar with my laptop knows.  I’m running out of room.  Misu disagrees; there’s always room for her (and another voting sticker) on it.

Today I pounded in lots of stakes along the property line with the neighboring house, so now it actually looks like a true boundary, no mistaking it!  I’ll probably plant flowering vines along it to create a screen.  My baby trees are getting taller, too.

Here is the sunrise this morning.  Misu always makes sure I get up in time to see it.

Here’s what to do when it’s freezing out in E. Tennessee–bloom like crazy, and chill out on a sunny windowsill.  This cat takes the latter to a whole new level of zen.  And here’s something different–after over a year of just sitting in the garden doing nothing, this broccoli is finally forming a head!  Talk about the south being slow!

So of course it’s cold and snowing today–typical Tennessee.  Constant contrasts (sounds like a tea) keep you on your toes.  Note the snow falling on the white flowering tree.  A perfect day to set up my seed flats and plant my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants under grow-lights.  Mission accomplished.  Misu “supervised”.

As threatened, I tweaked my new garden border some more, this time to enclose both trees.  Definitely a work-in-progress.  I also hoed weeds along some of the widened beds.

E has finished painting the new ceiling and installing a new light and other fixtures.  Next she has lots of tweaking of her own to do to complete the bathroom.

My most daunting task, to weed-whip the masses of invasive vine honeysuckle taking over the “prairie”, proved to be not so hard after all.  There’s still a lot to be whacked, but it’s not so overwhelming now.  While at it, I discovered four more cedars out there.

I inspected my little trees out on the lawn, and they appear to have survived the strange winter.

Here are maples and dogwoods budding out against the sky.  Besides daffodils blooming, the grape hyacinth has started.

I forgot to mention one more sign of an early spring–frogs are peeping in roadside puddles, and you can just make out spring peepers singing in the distance.  I know right?!

In fact, while working outside all morning and afternoon, I could have sworn it was April, not February.