Joyful, Joyful!

My very first daffodil bloom, Friday, April 20th!

Spring seems to have finally sprung here in upstate NY, after a couple of false starts.....

and I'm rejoicing!!!

This is what our front yard looked like after Monday's (April 16th) big nor'easter snowstorm a week ago. The birds were busy at the feeders all day. We had about 7" of snow but it melted within a couple of days.

Now that that we have sun and warm temps the birds are singing sweetly and a pair of chickadees are building a nest in the nest box on the grape arbor

These crocus bounced back remarkably well after being completely buried in snow.

I'm amazed at how large these three colorful crocus blooms are.

On Friday morning the daffodils in this garden were getting ready to pop open....

And by 4PM they were bobbing their cheerful faces in the breeze.

And now, on Monday, we have a host of golden daffodils, and that favorite poem by William Wordsworth fills my mind as I gaze upon their bright yellow beauty....

"I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze".

This was always a favorite of my father's too, and made me think of him, so I called him tonight and we had a nice chat. He lives in Australia in an assisted care facility, and at 90 years old he's still doing quite well. He has the beginnings of dementia and doesn't remember things so well these days. I think it took a while for him to realize who I was, but he didn't say so, and he had it figured out after about 10 minutes into the conversation.

The cats were out playing and enjoying the warmer temperatures (Murphy and Pepper).

We had a high of 76ºF/24ºC on Friday and I'm sure you can imagine how good that felt to us. The last time we had temps in the 70's (around 22ºC) was 6 months ago, on October 9th!

Last Thursday and today I had a wonderful time helping out at my favorite nursery!! Can you imagine the exultation? (Yes Val, I'm exulting!) (Val is an exulter :) There were 3 other ladies there besides the owner. Two of them are Master Gardeners and the other is the president of a local garden club.

I was in seventh heaven planting flowers and talking gardens. What could be more fun? Well......there's grandchildren, but this is a close second :)

These lovely geraniums will be ready for Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May.

Last night we performed our Community Choir concert, "The Love Of Jesus", an Easter musical. We had to cancel it last Sunday because the storm started on Sunday afternoon and the weather was just too nasty for traveling on the roads. The music is beautiful, and we were so thankful to have the chance to sing it because at first our director thought we wouldn't be able to reschedule.

Here are a couple more photos of the barn cats enjoying the sunshine. That's Murphey to the left, Pepper is the black and white, and Cleo is the calico. She's a sister to Jasmine, our house kitty, but from the litter of the previous summer.

Cleo and Murphy again

And here's sweet Pete sunning himself.

They were all keeping me company as I worked in the gardens, cleaning up and doing some weeding.

Tonight we had thunder, lightning and rain. Our first thunder storm of the season! We have cooler temperatures (50'sF/10ºC) in the forecast for the rest of the week, but we've had a nice taste of spring at least, and I have faith that there'll be more coming soon!

I hope you all have a lovely week. I'll try to catch up on my visits to your blogs during these next few days. It's been busy here!