First signs of Spring

As a pagan, I don't dare dream of the coming of spring until the festival of Imbolc comes around. Imbolc is the coming of the Spring - the green amongst the snow, the glow of the coming dawn upon the horizon. At Imbolc, we acknowledge that despite Jack Frost having a firm hold upon us, that hold is weakening - the back of winter is broken, and we can now start to look forward to Spring.  This year, Imbolc feels very real to me. Like a new tree, I've been shipped about and plonked into my new hole over the winter. Now I've decided the ground I'm on seems pretty good, and my roots have settled just a little, I feel confident enough to sprout some new growth, plan for the future, and branch out a little into my new environment, and my new home. 

I'm enjoying looking for signs of Spring in my garden as well. For a moment there I thought the old man had a thing against flowers and bulbs, but perhaps no garden can exist without at least a couple of daffodils, so I'm pleased to find a couple of different types in my garden.

I also have a mystery ring of bulbs appearing near the meter box - care to guess what they are?

I'm also excited to see blossoms on my beloved apricot tree! I said to my lovely man, "I'm tempted to count how many flowers there are so I know how many apricots I'll be getting this summer!" to which he replied "do the flowers to turn into fruit?" *snort* 

I'm still fascinated by being able to see the mountain - some days it wears a coat of snow, other days it's hiding amongst mist and clouds. Some mornings it catches the sunrise and glows pink and purple. Even of a night you can tell its shape of blackness against an almost black sky. 

Have I shown you my strawberry patch before? It fruited from the time I moved in right through to the end of Autumn! I'm a bit puzzled about what I'm to do with it though - I noticed some of the fruit were nibbled on by centipiedes, and I'm not really sure if it needs "maintenance" before the fruit season. Any ideas?

And this is the site for my veggie patch! The shed should protect the plants from the wind, and it faces East so gets sun for most of the day. I'm planning on pulling out half the bushes, and once I feel I can handle one half, do the other half later on. I'm looking forward to making this part of my garden much more useful than a heap of ground covers!