Warm south wind, 48 degrees this morning, hellebore buds straining, the south garden gradually filling with henbit (some with small buds), the circle garden with bittercress, the north garden with three-to-four-inch daffodil foliage, the porch bricks and the north garden with chickweed, the mild winter gradually allowing the ground covers to advance.

Light snow and wind throughout the day. At a little after 2:00 in the afternoon, Jeanie heard something that sounded a little like bamboo scraping on our windows. But it was too loud to be the bamboo. I thought maybe the teapot was making strange noises.

 Crows at 7:30 this morning, the sky clear and bright. Clouds moved in off and on through the day, but I noticed for the first time the way the sun came in against the west wall after 8:00 a.m., how it rested in the late afternoon against the east wall, a pattern it could not have made in late spring or in the summer.

2011: Crows at 7:44 this morning, cold mist and fog outside. The sparrows fed heavily today. Rick wrote about seeing sandhill cranes earlier this month: "Hope you caught some of those flights of cranes coming over.  One of the last ones, of about fifty flying quite high, saw our problem and circled our house long enough for Mary and I to run inside and put glasses on them.

Many robins still in all the lawns, a flock of grackles cackling, cardinals and doves calling as I walked Bella in the alley this morning. Monarda leaves are showing now in the north gardens. At Jacoby, skunk cabbage was blooming throughout the lowlands. Buttercup and ragwort foliage was common, and touch-me-not sprouts were up but quite small, only having emerged in the past few days.

Dove and robins heard when I walked outside at 5:50 (EST) this morning. When I went out to walk Bella at 9:30, I found the first few forsythia flowers open on the south side of the yard. Grape hyacinths are turning blue in the north garden. In the Dakotas, a tremendous blizzard has shut down roads and services. At Fargo, sandbaggers are attempting to stop the Red River from flooding the town.

Robins and a cardinal were singing when I went outside this morning at 5:53 (EST). The afternoon was warm and sunny; we cleaned up the pond, at least 50 fingerlings counted, then we planted a pair of bittersweet vines, three larkspur plants, three salvias, three veronica and a catmint. Noticed that our Virginia bluebells have buds.

Robins at 6:00 (EST) this morning, cardinals at 6:08. Grackles cluck all day in the back trees. Bluebell foliage in the south garden is up three inches; above it, the first mock orange leaves are coming out. In the north garden, the first mint is pushing out, deadnettle blooming beside it. Even with temperatures in the 40s, honeybees come to the pond to drink.