The Promise of Spring

Today was gray, rainy, and a bit on the chilly side.  Not atypical weather for Maryland in February, but always a bit of a let down after the warm sunny days we had last weekend.  Even with the crazy winds, it was still jacket wearing weather instead of coat weather most of last week.  Tonight much of Maryland may get snow!

Even though it was drizzling, Mr. Tide and I ventured out and took Mr. Quinn and Misty Belle out for a ride and some socialization at a local college.  Kids away at college love seeing animals.  I think it reminds them of home and  maybe their own pets, so it's a wonderful place to take a puppy to get exposed to lots of different people.  They ooh and ahh over puppies and tell you all about their own dogs, which I love hearing about.

As we pulled back into our driveway this evening I looked at my brown and neglected flower bed.  It's a huge bed and it looked so sad and lonely, with not an ounce of color to be found besides brown, and more brown.  Not that long ago it had looked like the photos above, full of color and overflowing with flowers.

I bought tiny Lantana plants last year on sale for $1.99 each.  They were in 6 inch pots and I planted a few in the front bed for some added color.  They looked sort of silly really, they were so small and there was a lot of space between each plant.  Within a month or so they had taken over the flower bed so I was thankful I hadn't planted them any closer.  By the time the frost hit last fall they had grown to nearly 6 feet in diameter...that's per plant!  When we would pull into our house I would jokingly refer to them as the blobs that ate NY.

I saw some songbirds today returning and that gives me hope.  Hope that in just a few short weeks the promise of spring will be fulfilled.  That daffodils, cherry blossoms, and tulips will all be making an appearance.  It's a promise I look forward to each year!

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