signs of spring

My crocus' started blooming last week, they were out in full force yesterday.

I live in the middle of nowhere, so I see a lot of brown. I love when the day hits in spring that I'll be driving up the road towards my house and magically there is no more brown and everything is green.

Weather is decent and we've green things with color popping up.  It won't officially be spring until our first tornado warning.

Ice and snow in southwest Iowa.  Spring is not here yet.  I took pictures of my new humming bird feeders for reusing wine bottles, while it was snowing.  Not sure that is a good way to sell humming bird feeders???  :-)

I saw some tiny little purple star shaped flowers blooming on the trail during my run on Friday morning!

We had our first sandstorm.

Average pollution levels are dropping down into the "4x the 'healthy' level" "10x the 'healthy' level" because people are burning less coal to stay warm at night, and there's more wind.

People have stopped wearing their down coats, and are just wearing their regular coats.

Short skirts are back, but still with some sort of shiny long underwear underneath.

People are speaking longingly of Beijing Spring, knowing full-well that it only lasts about 3 weeks and then we're into the thick of summer.

Sure sign of spring- sunny, 40 degree run where I'm dressed properly, but find unintended chafing in the shower later. It's the temp that I have the hardest time dressing for.

Oh, and the robins are singing. That makes me happy.

The melting temps (34 degrees!  woot!) have turned the snow piles into puddles.  My favorite path is an ice skating rink from edge to edge

On the upside, I can now see my spare propane tank on the deck and the birds are chirping like crazy!

Yes!  And still have light when you get home to use the grill for making dinner in the daylight, etc.  It's awesome.

Oh I missed this!! Standing outside at 6:30pm, sun shining, BBQ fired up, no jacket. I was so excited I made a weeks worth of food.

And now, starting tomorrow, 40's and rainy.

That's December here. 

Only got 3.5'' of snow! Instead of the foretasted 5-8''

The sun actually feels warm.

It's suppose to be above freezing on Friday.

Someone please send some spring up this way, pretty please???