August 2021 – summer gardens, knitting an albatross, the wing and the wheel….

August 27, 2021September 20, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

August turned out a bit differently than planned, as we had to cancel travel due to the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19. I celebrated another birthday, walked the neighborhood, ate lots of fresh garden tomatoes, knitted, sewed masks, enjoyed my daughter’s visit, and went on a few hikes (next post).

Neighborhood and garden

Summer roses

Echinacea

Shadows

View to downtown from Alameda Ridge from the top of…

the 38th Avenue stairs.

Signs of support in the neighborhood…

Water splashing in the Beverly Cleary sculpture garden.

Harbinger…

Puffy clouds in the evening sky,

Half moon rising,

Alpenglow

Farmer’s market and garden bounty

Birthday cupcakes and books

Knitting and sewing

An Albatross –

I finished knitting an Albatross Chick, pattern by Rachel Borello Carroll. The face and legs are perfect, the body and wings a less accurate reproduction, but I love having the chick on my shelf.

During our travels in New Zealand in February of 2020, we saw albatross chicks in their nests at the Royal Albatross Center in Taiaroa.

Albatross, taken from the bird blind at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head, February, 2020

After we returned home, almost immediately into pandemic lockdown, I discovered the albatross chick Atawhai, who we probably saw on our visit, was live on camera 24/7 on the Albatross Webcam: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds…

I spent many a moment of zen during this pandemic, watching Atawhai sitting in the beautiful landscape that we visited, the beaches we walked upon beyond. Atawhai fledged in September of 2020.

This year I have been watching the new season of albatross on the webcam. There is a new fluffy chick named Tiaki, who will also fledge soon. She is down to only a few fluffy feathers, and spends lots of time stretching her wings in the wind (wingspan about 3 meters!) One day in the next month, the wind and wings will catch together successfully, and she will fly off for a few years, somehow knowing how to dive into the water to get food, having never touched it before. And new chicks will be hatched in January. The photos here are screenshots from the Webcam.

Other knitting and sewing: I finished two more hats for donation, and made new masks for my daughter.

Not traveling

Our travel destination turned from orange to red the week before departure, so we will not be walking through the Mid Atlantic Ridge, not watching an active volcano in the twilight, not walking along the shores of a glacial lake with floating icebergs, or seeing the birds and marine life of the North Atlantic ocean. We thought we would be too early for northern lights, but I was looking forward to seeing the lopi yarn, the black sand beaches, all the recent volcanic features, and the many waterfalls…. I heard an interesting discussion about the ethics of making the choice to not get vaccinated, and whether people making that choice (excepting those with true medical reasons) should have consequences. I fall squarely on the side of yes they should, and not because my travel plans are delayed. People are dying, people are surviving with long term consequences. Everyone’s life has been interrupted, and will continue to be until herd immunity can be achieved. So yes, I think that those selfishly ignoring the science, unwilling or unable to evaluate all the misinformation out there for what it is (more divisive rhetoric from the right wing patriarchy), should be restricted in their ability to move through public spaces freely, especially when they won’t offer the courtesy of at least wearing a frigging mask! It is a public health emergency!

RIP Nanci Griffith –

We lost one of my favorite singer songwriters this month. I have been listening to her beautiful voice and poetry for more than 40 years, and will continue to listen.

There’s a pale sky in the east, all the stars are in the west
Oh, here’s to all the dreamers, may our open hearts find rest
The wing and the wheel are gonna carry us along
And we’ll have memories for company, long after the songs are gone.

Nanci Griffith – Wing and the Wheel

July 2021, a miscellany

August 4, 2021August 4, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

July has been low key, with an episode of busyness near the end, when we had house guests and a long awaited wedding celebration of a good friend. Otherwise, I have been knitting, hiking, walking the neighborhood, growing tomatoes, attending zoom and back yard knitting and book group meetings, and watching Le Tour de France and the Tokyo Olympics. And avoiding exposure to the Delta variant of Covid 19, so masking up in stores again, and keeping all contact with non household people as sanitary as possible. Sigh, but it must be done!

Knitting –

I finished a gnome, a charity hat and a pair of gift socks.

Gnot Just Another Gnome by Sarah Schira

Straight Up Reversible Striped Hat by Nicole Nehrig made from Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash

Green Striped socks, Patons Kroy sock yarn

I finished the face embroidery on my albatross, and have another pile of works in progress:

Albatross by Rachel Borello Carrol

WIPS – Two hats, a pair of socks, a cardigan.

Neighborhood and Garden –

Hot dry days and colorful flowers.

sunflowers

rudbeckia

the path ahead

interactive succulent planter

fireweed and music boxes

farmer’s market fruit

Love

dahlias

old cement

homegrown tomatoes

sweetpeas, zinnias and coreopsis

Hikes –

Keeping pace with weekly hikes. Still avoiding weekends, and dodging heat.

July 6 – Lookout Mountain, east of Mt Hood. Always enjoyable for the flowers and the views this time of year.

Mt St Helens, from a blooming High Prairie, near the trailhead.

Mt Hood from the summit of Lookout Mountain.

July 20 – Larch Mountain Crater – north of Mt Hood, a 7 mile loop that circles the top of Larch Mountain through very quiet green forest. At the top there are views to all the Cascades north and south:

GPS track of Larch Mountain Crater hike, July 20, 2021

The quiet forest below the summit.

Some of the views from Sherrard Point:

Mt Hood

Close up of Mt Hood

Mt Jefferson through the haze.

Mt Adams to the north, beyond the burn zone

July 15 and 28 – Wildwood Trail, Forest Park – We hiked two sections from the NW 53rd trailhead, and now have only 7 miles to go to complete the entire Wildwood trail, a pandemic aspiration.

Dry and shady, Wildwood Trail near mile 10, July 15, 2021

Two July hikes on the Wildwood Trail.

Wildwood Trail near mile 8, July 28, 2021

A few of the flowers in the forest:

Chicory

Veronica

Solomon seal berries

Other events:

A wedding.

Emily returned to the east coast.

Trip planning with crossed fingers.

On to August….

June 2021 – Emerging…but into a heat dome?

July 2, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

It is June 2021 and I am emerging from pandemic life a little more each day, like the cicadas from their seventeen year hibernation, or the Munchkins of Oz after the tornado dropped the house of the Wicked Witch of the East on them. Well not exactly like that. But I am slowly meeting more friends in real life, blinking at the brightness of their unmasked smiles; hesitantly, then greedily leaning into their hugs; ramping up our conversations of all the not shared words of the past fifteen months. Then I go home and recover from the intensity of the interactions, but feel more relaxed, more appreciative of life before the pandemic, when meeting my knitting group and chatting for a few hours was a weekly occurrence; when the warmth of shared interactions was not impeded by a cold glassy screen.

I know the global pandemic is not over, that many places are still locked down and in crisis. People anxiously await their vaccinations, as I did three months ago. People with young children continue sheltering until their vaccines are approved. But it is time for us to go outside again…

Around town:

We are enjoying berry season! We went on several hikes (see the next post), and also to see the roses.

June 8 – Portland International Rose Test Garden – We visited during the week when Portland traditionally celebrates the Rose Festival, mostly cancelled this year due to Covid-19. On this showery day, we saw a full rainbow of glistening roses – appropriate for Pride month!

Knitting :

I have completed two projects – socks, and a donation hat. I have four works in progress: another donation hat, socks, a cardigan and a gnome:

Kroy socks

Donation Tam Topper

WIPs

I also met in person with my knitting group a few times, still outdoors and careful, but no masks as we are all vaccinated. We visited the Knitted Wit Warehouse on her open house day, and I acquired some new yarn. I also got a pile of potential from our knitter’s destash table at one of our meetups. It is so hard to leave beautiful yarn behind, knowing it was all going to donation if not taken home by one of us. So not sure what I am making with these, but I love the colorful potential!

New skeins

New to me destash table collection

Quilting :

I finished the baby quilt and sent it along to the new little one.

What the heck is a heat dome, and why is it lingering around my neighborhood!

At the end of the month, we were challenged again, by the heat dome! A rare meteorological event that produced record high temperatures across the usually mild Pacific Northwest, and once again confined us to our indoor spaces for a few days. Fortunately for me, we have an air conditioned house, but it is not common in Oregon. As the temperatures rose and the air stagnated, I was reminded of my time in Tucson, AZ, when the summer temperatures were commonly above 100 degrees, but not in the 110’s! We are out of it now, but it was uncomfortable, and catastrophic for many.

We resorted to making popsicles from our ancient Tupperware molds.

These neighborhood cactus plants were blooming and happy.

We are hoping for a mild July….

May 2021, part 2: Garden, Knitting, Sewing

June 4, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

My garden:

Native irises

First roses

Our tomato plants are doing well – next we will add a few basil plants.

Walking in Portland:

California poppies

Same poppies on a cloudy day.

Meadow rue and allium

Colorful landscaping

And in the “weird” Portland spirit:

Fairy garden

Sidewalk interactive music box display

Mannequin arms on Yogurt Shop bench

64400160134__465D340B-D3A1-40C2-8E4C-611D1AA8DF4C

First local Hood strawberries! (Not weird)

Knitting and sewing:

I am making progress on my bamboo Em Dash cardigan.

I’ve finished all of the parts of the albatross – assembly next.

I finished another hat for the guild charity project. Pattern is Jason’s Cashmere Hat, yarn is Knit Picks Hawthorne in the Compass color.

I am close to finished with the red/brown socks.

I started these green socks for travel knitting, made good progress on our DC trip. But I lost at yarn chicken.

The pinwheel quilt for a new baby in the family is basted and ready for quilting:

I used this opportunity to knit Egg to Turtle for the big sister. I have had my eye on this Susan B Anderson pattern for a while, and enjoyed the opportunity to make it for someone.

I refreshed my mask supply for our flight to DC and travels there:

I have some garment sewing patterns queued up for stitching. I’ve been using my Jane Austen pattern weights:

And in other crafty news, my knitting group is planning a Big Hug-Show and Tell Back Yard Party later this month, after we are all fully vaccinated. It will be great to share all our knitting projects that we have only seen over ZOOM.

Late April 2021

May 8, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Continuing my neighborhood walks: After the cherry blossoms, the pink snow,

We go from pink trees

to pink sidewalks in a week’s time.

And find them all through the neighborhood.

Dogwood trees and other flowers bloom,

Dogwood

rhododendron

fothergilla

lewisia

Interestingly cracked concrete catches my eye…

We went on two more hikes with amazing wildflowers:

Tom McCall Trail, OR, April 23

When we hiked here on March 11th, the slopes were covered with purple grass widows. Today, the balsamroot is the star!

Starting up the trail with friends.

Lower cliffs, balsamroot and lupine in full bloom!

Eastward view.

Every blade abloom under the oak trees.

Open slopes of balsamroot and Mt Adams.

Continuing up.

Paintbrush in bloom on the upper slopes.

Views from the top:

West to Mt Hood.

North to Mt Adams.

Northeast, to the Cherry Orchard.

More views on the hike down:

Rowena Plateau.

Paintbrush! and the Memaloose Hills, with their yellow backs.

Parsley Alley….

And a few more flowers, for the day.

Chocolate lily and some of that sneaky poison oak creeping in.

Oaks toothwort

Miner’s lettuce

Waterleaf

Orobanche

Baby stars

Bitterroot Trail, Catherine Creek, WA April 26

Aptly lived up to its name – the earlier blooming flowers have faded, but the bitterroot is just getting started today!

We began near the fairy ponds – now filled with camas lilies; the adjacent rock outcrops hosting glorious bitterroot flowers.

Lewisia rediviva

Sprinkled across the basalt; bicolored cluster lilies speckle the meadow beyond.

We wind our way up the slope:

Eastward.

Camas lilies and shooting stars.

Death camas and purple camas lilies

Turn left at the balsamroot, while admiring the windswept views east,

and west…

We drop down the Rowland Wall trail,

One of the largest clusters of bitterroot buds I have seen…

buckwheat

A giant clump of cliff penstomen surprised us!

More bitterroot scattered across the rocky surface along our return trail.

This is their time to rise up!

Meanwhile…

We finally had a chance to see the heritage American Chestnut Tree in the Sellwood neighborhood. It dwarves the house, and there is an enormous stump of another chestnut tree behind it.

Rare American Chestnut, Sellwood, Oregon

Leaves just budding out.

Knitting

I finished a Scrappy Marl Hat for the guild project,

started another hat, and restarted my bamboo cardigan.

Quilting

I’m making progress on the baby quilt.

Repotted plant report from Washington DC:

Commentary on the verdict, and the path forward:

Blooms of early April 2021

April 24, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

The crabapple tree in our front yard finally bloomed during the second week of April. This tree was in full bloom the day we moved into our house in mid March almost 30 years ago.

April 9th

April 11th

April 15th

Other garden blooms:

tulips fully open

phlox

checker lily

And some cupcakes for a friend’s birthday:

Hikes:

April 2nd, Memaloose Hills, OR –

Begin at the Memaloose Overlook…

Today’s star is balsamroot!

Buttercup carpet in the woods.

Balsamroot all the way up Chatfield Hill.

Looking back.

North view from the top – Mt Adams, paintbrush, yellow parsley.

Columbia River, Columbia Desert parsley, balsamroot

Mt Hood to the west.

Willows and bees near the spring on the return hike.

Popcorn flowers on Marsh Hill.

View from Marsh Hill back to the Memaloose Hills.

More wildflowers:

Blue eyed Mary and slender phlox

Glacier lilies and buttercups

Larkspur and balsamroot

Shooting stars.

April 8, Coyote Wall, WA – Our first hike with friends in more than a year! We are all fully vaccinated!

Starting up The Old Ranch Road.

Service berry in bloom on the Little Moab Cliffs.

The edge of the Coyote Wall, yellow parsley.

And balsamroot, eastward view.

Southward view.

And we are going higher!

Upper cliff edge view.

A nice meadow near Atwood Road, as we loop eastward before hiking down.

A day when every blade of grass seems to have a bloom!

So many flowers!

Desert parsley along Old Hwy 14 cliff, return hike.

And more flowers:

Parsley and cluster lilies

Tomcat clover

Pucoon

Great hounds tongue

Wooly vetch

Knitting

Some progress on two projects:

I finished the yoke on this bamboo cardigan, and it is way too big, despite careful swatching, so this one is in time out for a while.

A mystery project for a gift…

Quilting

I am starting a baby quilt for a new family member!

The rest of March, 2021

April 7, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Tulips and cherry blossoms, three more hikes, a new knit along, a careful cross country trip, and our neighborhood loses our star author, as we continue into our second year of pandemia.

The neighborhood in bloom –

anemones

tulips

forsythia

garden wall on Klickitat St.

cherry trees

Catherine Creek East

March 26th – A beautiful day – we roamed on the eastward loop to see the latest of early spring flowers sprinkled on the grassy slopes.

White death camas and saxifrage all the way up…

Yellow agerosis and yellow bells

The first of the purple camas,

the last of the grass widows.

Monkey flowers, rosy plectritis and orobanche

Shooting stars and saxifrage

Larkspur, and purple Columbia desert parsley

Yellow parsley and Mt Hood!

Meadow lark

Fairy ponds

Wildwood Trail, milepost ~ 10 to 14

March 29th – A slightly rainy day, trilliums lining the trail on our loop. I have now completed about 20 miles of the 30 mile trail during the pandemic.

Wildwood trail on a damp day.

Trillium blooming all along the trail.

Trillium

Violets

Salmonberry

Coltsfoot

Return along Leif Erikson Drive

Sky breaking out!

Cooper Mountain

March 30th – We took a quick loop around this mountain on the edge of suburbia, being reclaimed/preserved so that all doesn’t become concrete, while our son was at an appointment nearby. A few early spring flowers on view.

Iris

Indian plum

Oregon grape

Looking down the slope from the trailhead.

Knitting

I finished another hat, and continue to knit on the socks and cardigan.

Plaid hat – a test knit for a friend.

Sock and cardigan, in process.

Son’s trip to DC:

Travel is fraught in these Covid times, yet we needed to transfer one of our cars to our daughter on the east coast. Our temporarily unemployed son volunteered, so in the midst of the pandemic, he bubbled himself across country. With all appropriate masking and testing, he delivered the car. Then he flew back, and after more bubbling and testing, successfully completed his adventure Covid free.

Postcards from the road

Cherry blossoms on the National Mall

More cherry blossoms, tidal basin.

Beverly Cleary

We live in Ramona’s neighborhood, the same neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, where the acclaimed children’s author went to school and roamed Grant Park and Klickitat Street. Beverly Cleary died last week, a few weeks short of her 105th birthday. Though she spent most of her adult life in California, our neighborhood honors her legacy. Libraries and schools bear her name. We have a walking tour of the neighborhood to see her world. I remember getting my middle school aged son to read the books to his three year old sister while I was making dinner, and he never objected – he looked forward to it. “Is it time to read to Emily yet?” I especially enjoyed her two memoirs, recognizing many of the scenes from her childhood as replayed in her novels. I heard her say in an interview that she identified most with Ellen Tebbits. She got to live a good long life, and in our neighborhood we have her “ordinary” fictional children cast in bronze in the sculpture garden in the park, which doubles as a splash pad in the summer. Last week there were flowers in the sculpture garden in tribute to her memory.

Ramona the Pest

Henry Huggins

Ribsy

March 2021, so far….

March 25, 2021 / margaretquilts / 2 Comments

We are sliding into spring around here. Flowers are blooming, with a few warm days between the rainy stretches. We were vaccinated at just about the one year anniversary of the pandemic, and I am grateful! I feel the hope of spring, yet I know we still have so far to go until everyone can say that. And then my daughter reminds me of our privilege in the world. I know. I can only live where I am, but I do know.

Knitting, reading, hiking, on we go, fuzzy days mushing into each other. Planning the weekly grocery list. Creating with my hands, my brain, I take notes. I try to find the distinguishing features of each day, and celebrate the positivity and the beauty. That is most of what I do, and will do, and am lucky to do. So….

Hiking

1) We snowshoed up White River on Mt Hood on March 2nd – clouds swathing the peak much of the day, but in a most artistic way.

Mt Hood in clouds, near the Sno-Park.

Lunch view, near the Timberline Trail crossing.

The snow on nearby Boy Scout Ridge looked unstable, so we kept our distance!

Return trip…

Last views – we can almost see the entire peak.

2) On March 11th we hiked Tom McCall Point and around Rowena Crest, east of Hood River in Oregon, to see the fields of grass widows.

Thousands of grass widows on the plateau below Tom McCall Point.

Grass widows

More grass widows…

Columbia River reflecting the Cherry Orchard cliffs in Washington.

Parsley alley

Mt Adams and Rowena Plateau, from near the top of Tom McCall Point.

Tiny flowers of spring whitlow grass.

Then we walked around Rowena Crest, closer to the river:

East view from Rowena Crest cliffs – kettle lakes in the foreground.

Westerly view.

One of the lakes on Rowena Crest.

Abstractions in the lake reflections…

And more grass widows!

3) The next week, on March 16th, we went out across the river to Lyle Cherry Orchard again. No squalls this time – a perfect hiking day, and the first of the bright yellow balsam root blooms were opening as we hiked.

Hiking up above the Convict Road.

Columbia Desert Parsley in full bloom.

Balsam root opening on the upper slopes.

Lots of flowers showing for the first time this spring:

shooting stars

balsam root

death camas

ballhead waterleaf

popcorn flower

fiddle neck

blue-eyed Mary

gold bells and buttercups

Stunning views from the cherry orchard:

Eastward, one of the remaining cherry trees.

Westward, balsamroot

4) We also walked a fast loop through Tryon Creek Park, on March 17th, where the very first of the trillium were opening, a little later than last year.

Tryon Creek

First trillium of spring

Around Portland

My neighborhood is also blooming.

cherry trees

star magnolia

The mountain is out, from the Markham Bridge.

goodbye to the Subaru

“Emily’s house”

windows

hyacinth

dove

windflowers

star magnolia

Knitting

I finished knitting a pair of socks for me and another hat and a cowl for the guild charity project, and cast on new socks and a cardigan.

New yarn, Rose City Virtual Yarn Crawl!

Marled Alaska Cowl

Bankhead hat

New socks for me

Patons Kroy socks

Em Dash cardigan

And…

I hold the more difficult challenges to the outside world in my heart. This week it is yet another uniquely American gun violence episode in Georgia, another hate crime, anti-woman, anti-Asian. I know in my heart it is all true, and part of the work we all have to do – bring out all the biases into the light of day and see how they harm so many. I am listening and learning more each day, and it all rings true, and saddens me. I pledge to myself to be as much of an ally as I can recognize. Listen and learn. Validate. Search for the commonalities and not the otherness. From my place on the privilege spectrum. That is most of what I do, and will do, and am lucky to do. And before I can publish this – yet another mass shooting at a grocery store in Colorado.

As a youngster with all the idealism of youth, I envisioned a giant magnet circling the world sucking away all the implements of violence, all the guns and weapons of war. On days like today with a heavy heart and a less idealistic world view, still I sigh and wish it could be true.

An image from Instagram.

And a volcano is erupting in Iceland!

February 2021 ice storm; knitting

February 25, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

We did get the ice storm. Sunday morning, February 14th, the outside world was coated with ice; icicles hanging from the eaves and power lines; drifts of snow were frozen hard as cement and nearly impossible to shovel. We only lost power for about 12 hours – not long enough for lasting harm.

Sunday afternoon the thaw began. Icy chunks and spears crashed down for a couple of hours until the winter glaze was gone, leaving a foot of snow to melt away over the next few days. The crocuses made it, though they seem a little wilted.

Knitting:

I finished and blocked my beautiful Habitation Throw. The pattern is by Helen Stewart, the 24 different mini skeins from my knitting group advent calendar. I enjoyed the knitting, and I’m already planning another one.

Habitation Throw

I took an online class about Knitting Marls with Cecelia Campochiaro. We learned about color theory and sequence knitting. I knitted my swatches from six colors of Malabrigo Lace yarn, and now just have to decide which swatches I will use in my class cowl project.

Six colors of Malabrigo Lace.

Marl swatches

Happy Valentines Day!

I was cheered on our icy Valentine’s Day by this lovely card and key chain from my sister who is also a Jane Austenophile.

Skiing in Portland, February 2021

February 14, 2021February 16, 2021 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

February 14th – When it snows in Portland, our city mostly shuts down. This only happens every few years. We don’t have enough plows to keep side streets clear, and often get sheets and layers of ice with the snow, so best to stay in if possible. This year, we were ready, having practiced pandemic life for eleven months. We have apocalyptic quantities of nonperishable food in our pantry, and can resupply for a week or more with each grocery shop. So no panic, just sit and watch the winter wonderland form, and hope the power stays on.

I took my usual walks around the neighborhood on cross country skis for three days. The streets are flat, with very few cars out. Traffic is mainly dog walkers, families going to the park with sledding accoutrement, other skiers and fat tire bikers. A few skate skiers whizz by, but I am happy to kick glide along, probably slower than I walk, enjoying the novelty of skiing through my snowy neighborhood.

Traffic on Tillamook Street

I always notice these opposing statues on Thompson Street:

Dogs staring at Lions.

Lions staring at dogs.

Tonite the ice storm cometh. So far we still have power, but parts of the city have had outages. Eventually we will thaw and the slush will melt away, and I will be back to walking, but I have enjoyed a few days of skiing. Today was a bit icier on the road, unlike the first day when the surface was fluffy. Today I had to focus, keep my weight over my knees, and stay aware of icy tire tracks diverting my ski path. I was reminded of myself, in my early 30’s, when I attended an annual party at a park with a high dive on the swimming pool. Every year I would make my way to the platform and leap off, feet first, trusting the water to break my fall, just to see if I could still bring myself to do it. Today I trusted my knees and balance to keep me upright on an icy road, sliding along on my 30 year old skis. Check.

Crafting:

Sewing: I finally collected 200 pennies! No one uses pennies anymore, yet they are the perfect filling for a set of pattern weights, pattern from an old Elizabeth Hartman blog post. I used some of my Jane Austen fabric.

A side

B side

Knitting: I finished my Artists Garden Socks. I have made a goal to knit at least one item per month for the Puddletown Knitting Guild project to supply a woman’s shelter with warm items next winter. I obtained a pile of donated yarn from the guild, and have finished two hats so far, and started a cowl.

Artists Garden Socks

Quick Ombre Hat

Barley Light Hat

Blooming:

Meanwhile, around the yard and neighborhood, before the snow, I saw crocuses, one daffodil, and a cherry tree. Hopefully they will all survive the freeze we are in now.