Finally ... daffodils

 They're late this year. Maybe it was because the winter just past was the third snowiest on record (~54") or maybe it was because we got so cold so often. The coldest was -12° (01/28/14) but I recorded 11 days at zero or below. It was brutal.

 You've got to expect nature is going to slow down spring blooms, just out of fear if nothing else.

 But recent days have been warm (72° on 04/01/14) and above average every day this month. And last night's rain didn't hurt, either: 1.79 in just the last 24 hours, 2.35" so far this month.

 Conditions are now right. The daffodils took notice.

 These daffodils grow in our meadow, beneath the summer weeds. I can count on them surviving - and I can count on them multiplying. Each year the vivid yellows blaze a little brighter, a little more extensive, a little bolder. It is a carpet of canary-yellow, stretched by nature's own hand, weaving its way down one weedy hallway, now carpeting new rooms.

 It is magic, isn't it, to afford no more than a cheap carpet in the living room and then to find the bedrooms carpeted, too?

 In 2012, the daffodils were in full bloom on March 12. They are a full three weeks later this year.

 So far there are only clumps of yellow. The white ones are ready to bloom but the yellow ones have beat them to the finish line.
 A few weeks ago, on a sunny, pleasant day, I walked to the meadow to see if I might find some shoots of green. There were none. I kicked the leaves aside and found no more than frozen ground. Yet one week later the daffodils had begun upending the dried fall leaves, green spires reaching for the sun.
 Today they are in their glory.

Later (04/10/14): The white daffodils have added their bright faces to the mix. With this morning's brilliant sunshine, this otherwise-weedy  area is awash in bright colors ...