Sunday
I just spent the last five days in Stoddard and Lebanon, New Hampshire, where the weather can turn from calm to angry in a matter of minutes.  If you can drive there this time of year, you can drive anywhere. In the past few weeks, I’ve experienced getting stuck on a hill after a heavy snow (and driving white-knuckled down steep Pitcher Mountain), driving 40 miles an hour on 89 because of blinding fog, facing both hail and sleet head-on, and inching my way home through a rain storm that my wipers could barely keep up with.  There is still snow on the ground there and little vegetation to speak of.  I pulled into my driveway last night and couldn’t believe what I saw.  Even at night, I could see my forsythia bush blazing and the grass looked lush and green.  Spring, my friends, literally began while I was away.

Today, I wandered around my yard to see what plants were coming back to life.  Joyfully, I see nearly everything peeking up with the exception of some later perennials such as lupine and delphinium.  To celebrate, I’ve decided to put up a picture every day this week to share my discoveries.

To start, I’ll share a picture I took about a week ago of a primrose that I never imagined would come back.  Chris seems to love scouring the Stop and Shop clearance table in the floral department and found this lovely plant in an ugly pink plastic pot.  I threw it into the ground last summer and it was wilted and sad.  Honestly, I left the poor thing for dead last fall.

Things have a funny way of working out.   The day I discovered this little treasure, the sky was gray and the tree above the primrose hadn’t sprouted any buds yet.  Words can’t express how bright this flower looked against the neutral background and how happy it made me feel.

The primrose is native to Europe and is one of the earliest flowers to bloom in spring there.