Spring ! ?

Unseasonably warm here in Minneapolis this week. Today was warmer than yesterday, and yesterday was a high of 67, I think. A new record. No snow left in most places, except in the shade. Early Spring. Will this warmth remain, or will we get socked by some end of season Winter storm ? Stay tuned...
Pussy willows are full and grey, and the trees around town are already starting their Spring yellow-green tinge thing...that beautiful signal that all things chlorophyll are awakening, and ready to begin processing pure sunlight into beautiful structure. Exuberant, windblown, insect-assisted plant sex is about to explode for its brief annual moment. Every season has its place, but I love Spring ! And another note for the phenological record; I saw 2 different Mourning Cloak butterflies today, the earliest I've seen. They may have been the same butterfly, can't be sure, but they were hours and blocks apart. I, with the plants and certain mammals, come out of a certain slumber, and awaken to a different level in the warmth and activity of Spring.

Butterflies Need Us

As we humans continue to monopolize the geography for our own shopping needs, we keep plundering the shopping needs of other species. Monarch and other butterly species need native plants to sustain them in both their migratory journeys and their reproductive activities. We can help support them by growing plants in our gardens which provide them with nectar for adult food and leaves for caterpillar munching. Monarch Watch has a website that shows how to be a help to butterflies which happen past your own yard. Plant some native species this year and help keep the butterflies fluttering by !

Monarch Watch

Mourning Cloak on Easter

Here's the Mourning Cloak sunning on the sidewalk on Easter Sunday. I'll be watching the Pussy Willows in the next few weeks for egg clusters or caterpillars. Here's some good info about it: BAMONA . I note that Pussy Willows aren't actually listed as a host tree, so maybe the attraction in the neighborhood is the neighbors mature (read large & messy) Cottonwood tree. Here's another link...BugGuide

Early Spring Butterfly

I saw a Mourning Cloak butterfly today in the yard about noon, with the temperature only in the low 40's. I saw one about three weeks ago too, when we had a surprise (and teasing) day of 60 plus degrees. I also just tonight read about a frog that can sustain much of it's body tissue freezing and live to tell about it ! These critters have developed amazing feats of adaptation through thousands of years of contending with the local climate. I have a motley cluster of native plant seedlings from last year in plug pots sitting on a back patio which have also toughed it through a winter that would give lesser plants pause, or a ticket to the compost. What changes will the next 20 years bring that will give even species adapted to this region pause, or a group pass to the compost? Does my gardening give me faith, or do I bring my faith to the garden?