My favorite harbinger of spring is...

Hey ~ how'd the title get edited? I've wished to edit my title choice more than once. No luck! and no more sping... LOL

Yes ~ the pecan trees leafing out are a real southern indicator of spring!

There are so many things. The older I get, the more grateful I am for all the small things I can't believe I never noticed before. The fragrance of wisteria, the colors of azaleas, dogwood, cherry, peach and apple trees. The birds are my alarm clock now when I'm sleeping with the windows open, with my windchimes playing a lullaby. I love walking in my garden, watching for the newest surprise peeking out from winter's mulch. I love to sit on my bench with my eyes closed and feel the sun on my face with just a tiny breeze. The light of God's countenance shines through all creation (especially in Spring!)

But surely, the clearest signal of Spring and my least favorite thing, is my Sammie blows her coat and my vacuum and lint roller are grossly overworked! I bought a new, super duper special brush for her last week and now my back yard looks like it snowed! Ah well, the birds have some great stuff for nests.

Hey trackinshey - you and I think alike. I still haven't heard the quail, but see them often. But the Chucks are the ones that give me the little chillbumps of joy.

But the real test for me is "blackberry winter". It happens close to Easter, just a quick cold snap, usually not a killer, but once it happens I know that I have the freedom to plant whatever where ever. And this week is it for us. We have already had a number of days in the high 80s and at least one in the low 90s. But now it has cooled down with lows going into the 30s with a possible of 29 one night. I can remember one year waking up to snow on April 4th. My Easter Morn Iris were in full bloom. Quite pretty - the white blooms covered with snow. But since the ground was warmed up nothing, not even the blooms, was damaged.

Mostly right now I'm waiting for my sweet calling Chuck Will's Widows.
ginni

When the windows can be open all the time then it's spring time here. I work outside and live in shade so even in the summer I sometimes want to leave the windows open because it feels good compared to the hot sun. LOL

I'd say that it is when the shooting stars bloom - or when baseball spring training starts.

Look what happened to spring in upstate New York (and I think a lot of the Northeast)! It's the way spring is in the north - we get a teaser of warm weather and melting snow and then get another storm. At least we know the snow won't last long because Mother Nature has given us signs that spring is here - robins singing, crocus in bloom, the sun is higher in the sky and warmer.

I voted birds, naturally the robin is here first but can't always count on him as he came in Feb. last year.(think he got lost) But the little male finch starts to turn bright yellow in preparation for spring mating. He was at the bird feeder yesterday and you can clearly see the color change in him.

I love to see and smell the tree's blooms and some flowers bloom early.

When the starling's beaks turn yellow- they appear black when it is cold, and then you'll see them start to turn and they will be both black and yellow- once they're completely yellow, there always seems to only be 2 or 3 more weeks of really cold weather.
Samantha

SPRING BREAK!

Oh, yes. The kids are home with their parents, and I'm out in the garden.

I'm not grading papers, recording grades, making lesson plans, attending meetings, or driving back and forth from work.

I'm home! I'm gardening! No kids! No paper!

Chocolate chip cookies in the oven, and a whole week to dig, plant, mulch, and dream of summmer blooms. I love spring break!

Elf

When I start seeing all the different butterflies showing up in the garden. We have some monarchs all year here in Central Florida, but it's great to see all the others showing up one at a time. I try to have plenty of nectar and host plants for all of them.

When the ! or start making nests and all the birds are singing 'cause they're "courting"

I voted "other".
Even though the perennials are popping up in my pots & even though the robins are back (since early Feb) -- my "personal" harbinger of spring is when the "Bike-It Sunday" signs go up on the Bronx River Parkway.

LOL!

Nancy

When the Song Sparrow sings for a mate.

Lovely photo!

I voted "other" because I actually DISLIKE any harbingers of Spring, because here in central Florida that means Summer is right on its heels, and (in my opinion) Summers are absolutely miserable here. They basically last from the beginning of May through the end of October, and the heat is just relentless. The arrival of Fall is the season that I cherish, because THAT means I can finally "leave the windows open all day and night" and "turn the air conditioner" OFF.

:-)

John

You're not going to believe it, but ... Seeing bear tracks or scat out on the trails.

Spaceman, just come on up and visit us. (Make sure it's not forest fire season, though.)

Seeing my native Oregon Trilliums bloom!

I picked other after looking up "harbinger" to make sure I knew what the question was asking. It's actually a combination of seeing the first robins, the first blooming bulbs, being able to leave the windows open and hearing the tree frogs. If the air conditioning is running in our house it means it's way too hot outside!

Our windows are open all winter long - mostly - since we don't actually have COLD temperatures. But my favorite moment comes with my first plumeria bloom.
It was 12 days earlier than last year, when my first plumeria, a variety called India, opened on March 31st.

I think you needed to put an "all of the above" on this one Terry.

When the frogs start singing! I love to hear them. Sometimes they are so loud and there are so many, we have to close the wnidows! My BIL was down one weekend and we had all gone to bed (the guest room was next to ours) he hollard "When was the party going to end!" he couldn't sleep they were so noisy. lol

This message was edited Apr 6, 2007 1:07 PM

I'd like to change my vote ;-)

This morning as I was riding to work, I realized that it's the smiling, nodding faces of all those sunny, yellow daffodils that signal the official start of spring in my yard.

It is when everything starts turning green. My sister was leaving my house and she stopped and said, turn around. When I did she pointed up at the tall trees behind my house and said, look the trees are turning green. We both smiled because it ment spring is here.God is painting his picture again.

I voted for when that first special plant pops out of the ground, but I really have two other favorites also, the frogs with their chirpping and my little wrens that come back every year to my one special birdhouse to make their nest. I love to walk the gardens and see what has made it through the winter. I anxiously look to see if all my koi have made it too. Before you know it the frogs are so loud in the front yard, that has a natural habitat for them you can hardly hear yourself think. To see the two little wrens that faithfully come back year after year to build their nest is awesome. To watch them later in the spring to take flight with their newbabies is spectacular. I love this time of year

How could I have let it slip my mind? Our own asparagus, of course!

Picante, I'd love to be in Montana in the summer!! As long as I don't get eat by mosquitoes, LOL. I camped there one summer (down toward the border, toward Yellowstone), and I swear I've never been bitten by more mosquitoes anywhere else in my life!

I'd love to be there in the winter, too, as long as I don't have to get out and work in it! :-)

Dutchlady1, your plumerias are already blooming?? Mine have just BARELY started to get little sprigs of leaves again. Wow, I guess being 150 miles further south makes a big difference.

John

The first poppy--that's it. After that the smell of lilacs in bloom..and then..
lol.

On this snowy Easter weekend in Pennsylvania, reading about all of your harbingers of spring brings a smile to my face. The crocuses, the smiling faces of the daffodils(mentioned by Scutler), the snowdrops, the coltsfoot along the rural roads, and the expanding buds on the deciduous treees and plants are the harbingers for me. It is great to see the smiling faces of so many people when spring is here!

I dunno if this was mentioned before, but what is "sping"? A harbinger of sping?????

Today must be spring! 14º & a strong NW wind. Good day for a conference on global warming.

bolino - it was just a little typo Terry made and we couldn't resist teasing her. 'Sping' disappears days ago, as did SPRING in this part of the country. :)

When the willow trees start leafing out & the Cardinals return.

LD

Spring? You mean it's Spring? It's 36' here in full sunshine and going into the teens overnight.

We never see snow here and today it has snowed since Noon. Snow in April ~ HUH! 35 here and dropping!
Where is that global warming when we need it!

Take pictures of the snow!

Hi Pirl ~ No way on the photos! I grew up in Mn. Can't admire snow ~ even in August LOL.

Not even photos for posterity? Yah!

In Indiana, my favorite harbinger of spring was harbinger of spring, a.k.a. Erigenia bulbosa.

In New Mexico, I'll go with either Phacelia integrifolia or Dimorphocarpa wislizenii. Honorable mention for Rumex hymenosepalus. But really I like all of them...

Patrick Alexander