Pushing spring

[Venation, Wellesley College greenhouses; 3/14/15]

It's snowing again, albeit snow showers that aren't expected to accumulate more than an inch or so. Recent warmish weather and/or sunshine has reduced our giant snow piles considerably. I wore shoes -- that's shoes, not boots -- to work last week for the first time since December. There are lots of puddles, of course, from the snowmelt and also the cold rain we had much of this weekend. I won't worry about this snow, though it is already coating my car in the driveway. It will melt in tomorrow's sunshine. Friday is the first day of spring.

[Pansies, Wellesley College greenhouses]

Alas, it will be awhile before we have much  in the way of spring blooms or greenery -- it's expected to be quite cold this week, although dry -- so D and I decided to take a return trip out to Wellesley College to stroll the greenhouses, which we did on March 8th last year. Unlike last year, there were no tulips in bloom, making us think we must have gone later last year (no, apparently a week earlier, in fact), but there were daffodils and jonquils, pansies and all kinds of tropical and desert greenery, in the warmth of the college's 16 interconnected greenhouses. It was a nice visit, and an easy drive from my place - D is still unable to park in his parking space behind his building because of the giant mound of snow piled up by unhelpful neighbors. (On the other hand, he's lucky he didn't park there as enormous chunks of ice fell from the roof that would have no doubt damaged his car if it had been in his usual spot.) It would have been nice to drive out to my own alma mater for the annual bulb fest (we last made that spectacular spring exuberant display in 2012), but this was a nice quick treat.

[Daffodils]

[Old crank]

I uploaded a small set of photos here from our greenhouse wanderings yesterday. I hope I'll be able to post some spring scenes from right outside my door before too long. Last weekend I did catch one harbinger of spring in a small patch of dry ground outside D's building...

[First spring robin spotted in Back Bay, Boston; 3/8/15]

Comments

[Relatively Retiring]

Greenhouses, tropical houses, botanic gardens are the best places to visit at this time of year. I enjoy the Palm house in Kew Gardens where you can climb a spiral staircase up to the top, and it gets warmer and warmer.

[Leslee]

RR: I'd love to visit Kew Gardens. We don't have much in the way of botanic gardens in the Boston area, alas. At least the one at Wellesley isn't too far. There's a lovely one, Tower Hill, about 50 miles west of Boston near where I used to live. If this winter weather stretches much longer I may have to take a drive out there. :-)