End of Winter's Hold

Winter seamed longer than normal this year.  The snow was heavy and deep all winter and it's barely disappeared from my yard.  Evey few days, it would try to snow again.  Sleet or snow would fall from grey, cold, and breezy skies.

Yesterday, I noticed a tell-tale sign that Winter's grasp had finally been broken.  Rising defiantly among the ponderosa pine of my back yard to herald the retreat of Old Man Winter were Pasque Flowers.  These beauties rise at the first sign of spring -- like their cultavated cousins, the crocus.  As a child, I pondered how my mother's crocusses could poke through the snow and bloom above a stark North Dakota winter landscape while nothing else dared protrude above the snow. 

To me, these flowers are a poignant sign of changing seasons. Here in the high country of Northern New Mexico, another flower similarly comes forth at the break of spring.  This flower is the Storksbill  Geranium and they too have appeared in my yard.

              

I am so very ready for spring, greenery, and flowers!