Spring? Spring!

I had a lot to do inside today. But when I took my dog out this morning and felt how warm it was and saw everything that's coming up, I couldn't resist. I grabbed my pruners and rake and spent a good two hours or more cleaning up my back garden.

See what's poking up:

Tulips!

Spanish bluebells!

My maverick crocusses are in bloom!

The flowering quince is budding out! (Wonder how the fruit will be this year?)

And so is the Japanese daisy! (It got a haircut. And I brought some cut branches in and put them in water in the dining room window.)

The backyard daffodils were buried in last year's leaves . . .

. . . but a little raking soon took care of that. Poor things, they're all blanched. High time they saw the sun.

The Nikko Blue hydrangea is sporting fat red leaf buds (click the picture to embiggen). (I gave it a pruning, too.)

And of course my dog

And my cat

were out enjoying the day as well.

I tell myself that it will surely snow again before Spring comes for real this year. It always does. Nevertheless, the soil and its plants are tired of Winter, and regardless of its curtain calls, Spring is surely on the way.