Sunday morning - more tulips!

European starlings braved the foggy morning - even a lone Brown-headed cowbird

 showed up for breakfast. It's warmer, calm, but so dreary and more rain coming.

Tomorrow March arrives, called 'Martius' by the Romans, from the god Mars.

It received the name 'Hlyd Monath', i.e. loud or stormy month, from the 

Anglo-Saxons.

March days of note

March 1st - St.David

March 12th - St.Gregory

March 17th - St.Patrick

March 25th - Lady Day

This weekend I gathered up white tulips at LIDL - there were

 just two bunches. . . . . . .I brought them both home.

Clean and bright, they will welcome a new month. . . . .let's all

 hope it will be a better one.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Many thanks for all the kind comments on my 14th blog anniversary 

yesterday - you are all wonderful friends.

First Days of March in the Garden. . . . . . .

Already some beautiful blooms outside the cottage windows. 

Took these photos yesterday. Meanwhile, this morning, after light showers

during the night, the temperature has cooled a little. Now, the sun is shining and

 the daffodils have opened all around the cottage and are blowing in the breeze.

 I'll be out there again later to cut some for a vase. 

Hope your garden is waking up now that Spring is on its way.

For those of you still with snowy conditions, I hope you enjoy 

looking at the flowers, and that yours will soon be adding color 

to your very own garden.

A small but beautiful tree. . . . . . . . . . .

Yesterday the official temperature reached 82F here in Raleigh ~ quite a 

hot pre-Spring day.

Being St. Patrick's Day there were many short sleeved Kelly green t-shirts visible ~

both on the street and the outdoor patios of restaurants and watering holes.

'Erin go Bragh' was heard on tongues not necessarily Irish. Seems we are all 

suddenly Irish on March 17.

The subject of this post is really my precious Tulip magnolia (Magnolia liliiflora)

which suddenly showed color in yesterday's sunshine. 

Petals burst through, and the fuzzy buds took on a beauty all their own. 

No longer the tiny shrub I planted a few years back, this baby is now a small tree. 

Native to southwest China ~ Sichuan and Yunnan ~ but cultivated for 

centuries elsewhere in China and Japan.

A deciduous small tree to about 12 feet tall, smaller than other magnolias, 

it blooms profusely in early Spring with large pink to purple showy flowers, 

before the leaf buds open. . . . and I love it.