Believe It, Spring Has Arrived!

Yesterday was our first really wonderful spring-like day.  The beautiful sunshine and warmth could hardly be believed, but was welcomed by all in these here parts.

I took this picture of the pond opening up first thing in the morning.

In the morning the broken up pieces of ice seemed to be floating just under the surface.  By afternoon, we had all kinds of icebergs raised up out of the water.  (Can anybody explain this phenomenon to me?)

Our little pond is filled by the drainage of water from the hills in back of us.  It collects in the ditch by the side of our driveway and then flows through a culvert under the driveway into the pond.  Yesterday it was gushing in.  (Not the best picture of the gush, but the electric fence was in my way and I try not to touch that too often.)

My strawberry patch covered with pine boughs for the winter is totally free of snow and I'm thinking I should get it uncovered fairly soon now.

The blueberry bushes (with raspberry patch behind them) are down near the bottom of the garden (who was the resident dummy who chose to plant them there where they get less sun?) and still have some snow cover.  (Some snow cover?  Ha!  The snow to the right out of this picture is still two feet deep.)

The chives have been cleaned of their winter mulch protection and are enjoying the warmth.  I planted my Sweet Peas on either side of this trellis a couple of days ago.  (Go, little Sweet Peas, go!)

This is snow still piled at the back (north side) of the house.  There's lots of snow in piles made by the snowplowing still to melt, but it's definitely on its way out now.

This morning (Tuesday) we had heavy, heavy rain with thunder for a few hours, but now at mid-afternoon the sun has come out and our temp in the shade is 59°.  Spring has taken a long time to come to the north woods, but I do believe it finally made it.