Please, March ...

Someone was feeling playful at Cornell this week. The marquee outside the student union, which usually spells out the names of films playing in the theater inside, read instead: "Please March go out like a lamb. Please."

In contrast to last year's early spring, winter's chill is lingering this year. The hardiest of the perennial foods are just pushing through the cold soil - the nearly neon red-orange knobs of rhubarb and the first needle-like spikes of chives.

Rhubarb knobs (future leaves) pushing through the ground

The first chive spears

Still, I mind the "lion" of this month less than I would have in the past, for the greens in the hoop house are growing ferociously. The scallions, dormant and only partially grown all winter, are filling out. The claytonia, arugala and mustard are nearly at their peak. The mizuna has begun to bolt, providing some mini broccoli-like florets and a burst of cheerful yellow (edible) flowers. The rosettes of mache leaves are elongating, warning that they, too, will soon bolt to seed.

Overwintered scallions are filling out

Arugala

Claytonia

"Green Wave" mustard - very hot!

The mizuna (an Asian green) is starting to bolt

As for the needed promise of spring, the lettuce, kale and other seeds I planted in mid-February are now seedlings.

Lettuce seedlings in hoop house

All this growth means some added work, as the beds now need to be watered regularly. With night-time temperatures still well below freezing, it's too cold to set up the hose, so we carry a large watering can back and forth. About six trips in all. Our reward for our labor: large servings of braised mizuna and sides of the tastiest salad leaves.

I Still Believe in Spring

Wondering if they should return south?

The flock of robins is back in our yard this afternoon, devouring the remaining buckthorn berries and, I assume, trying to stay warm. I wonder if they are appalled as I am at yet more snow, arriving just after a series of warm, sunny days melted almost all of winter's white mounds.

Still, signs of the changing season continue to appear. Yesterday, Richard took me out to the large cottonwood at the end of our driveway. The base of the tree was surrounded by a substantial pile of relatively fresh wood chips.

Looking up ... way up, we saw the unmistakable large, deep, oval hole of a pileated woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the northeast U.S.

A pileated woodpecker's work

We rarely see either of the dramatic, but shy, mates (or their offspring) that we assume still nest in our woods, but it is nice to find signs that they are still around.

Signs of Spring

Snow still covers most of the ground, but the stones under the shoveled paths radiated enough warmth yesterday to delight us with the sight of bare ground ...

Bare ground begins to appear

Kat was delighted too!

Kat relishing sun-warmed stones

Today, I came home from work to find an enormous flock of robins in the yard, savoring the buckthorn berries and picking seeds from the beds nearest the southern wall of the house. I only managed to photograph one before they flew away. The buckthorn is an evasive weed tree, but I'm glad to see it used for a good purpose.

Sighting: the first robin of the year!

Fresh salad is a reality again, in more than small quantities. Mache and claytonia, two mild salad greens, are the stars of winter salad, not only surviving, but thriving in frigid temperatures (in the protected climate of the hoop house, of course).

Mache, in the hoop house, of course ....

and claytonia ("miners lettuce).