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Sunday, March 19, 2017

3 Weeks in the 2017 Season for my Crocuses (among other things)



Today, March the 19th, is the eve of the onset of the Spring season for 2017. March the 19th is also the day many observe The Feast of Saint Joseph. I have a small statue of him on a shelf above my desk.

It can be seen in the picture atop this entry in the company of Saint Francis and Saint Jude, who are standing to his right (or lefthand side of the image).

Saint Joseph is also in the company of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is standing front and center in the photo, while "Jonah's whale" gazes at her from the right (or lefthand side of the image).

To her left (or righthand side of the image), is a crucifix, which Saint Anthony is standing behind, to his left, (the righthand side of the image) is Saint Lucy.

On many occasions, I have sought the intercession of all these saints, as well as other ones including, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose framed image is on the wall of my desk  (directly next to this shelf), which can be seen in the following image.

This picture is of a framed photo of  St. Thérèse de Lisieux.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux

But since today is The Feast of Saint Joesph, seen in a solo photo-op below...


...I'd like to repeat what I've said before re him: Saint Joseph "is known for many things, including being the patron saint of home as well as house hunting. I became acquainted with the latter aspect of Saint Joseph when I was looking for an apartment. After much fervent prayer in which I implored his intercession, I found the one where I am currently living and where I have my little roof extension garden."

I'm most grateful to have my rooftop garden and for the array of birds which visit it, even during times when the garden's surface is covered with frozen snow.

The following pictures feature two types (an American Robin as well as a dark-eyed junco respectively) of many who are not deterred when fresh or frozen snow covers my garden's surface,










although, in the case of the robin my providing grapes and berries in a manner that somewhat covered the fruit probably gave the robin added incentive to be here,




even if that meant having to share dried cranberries with the Northern mockingbird,


and fallen seeds with European starlings, as well


as house sparrows.


The American Robin truly seemed to make do on the snowy surface, even stopping to make a snow angel as seen below.


And as the aforementioned songbirds do not let a snowy or frozen garden surface deter them from living life to the fullest, the crocuses growing here, even if they get doused, and I do mean doused in snow, remain perky whenever they have the chance.

It has been five years and one day, since I first had blooms of crocuses in my garden, which I wrote (here on Blogger) about during that time; and, if you'd like to reference that particular entry, please click here.

I made my first posting on Blogger re 2017's first appearance of crocuses, exactly three weeks ago on March 5th 2017. In that entry, I included the following three images of crocus varieties (that grow in small pots) who were just waking up from their winter's nap,




as we were having unseasonably warm temperatures in NYC. Also at that time some crocus flowers were popping up in the container which houses my Continus Coggygria (Smoke Bush), and they can be seen in the pictures below.






Then six days later, these crocuses were sprinkled with snow as seen in the following pictures,





all of which were included in a blog post published on March 10, 2017, which you may reference by clicking here.

Since that time bitter cold temperatures continued to prevail and I wasn't sure what the fate of my little crocuses would be.

My concern for them compounded when the snow fall resulting from STELLA, the "bombogenesisis" nor'Easter that hit NYC this past Tuesday, completely covered all my small containers of flora, leaving only the tip of a name-tag for one of my crocus varieties showing (as seen below).




And today, March 19th, three weeks after I first "reported" on my waking up for the 2017 Spring season, which officially begins tomorrow, and six days after STELLA, the crocuses that are growing in my Continus Coggygria (Smokey Bush) container, are showing what survivors they are, as evidenced below.



But much of the other flora growing here does not look a if they are ready for the onset of spring tomorrow. All of my tulip varieties, except for one, pictured below,


are still completely buried in snow! As you may recall from a prior blog post, a number of my tulip varieties had many shoots of foliage on March 5th, now only one sign of life is appearing in this one, as you can see in the photo above.

The only other signs of my flora waking up for the spring season can be found with my Ophipogon planiscapus (Black Mondo Grass),


whose blades are trying to break through the frozen snow; and also with the Heuchera twins who can be seen below.



Everything else, including my 'Tamukeyama' (AkA Japanese Maple),


my Prickly Pear,


and my Crepe Myrtle,


certainly do not look as if they got the memo that spring begins tomorrow!

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