If you’re a plant in the Badlands, the first thing you need to do each spring is tunnel up through new sediments! (this stuff can be about as soft as poured cement when it hardens). But as it dries, the claypan cracks, and the spring perennials are forcing up through these gaps. Pretty incredible to witness. The green spears must be in the Allium family, because I pinched a bit and they taste/smell like chives. I believe the other plant, developing yellow/ruddy buds, is a “fetid marigold.” Doesn’t stink yet!

The trees are budding out, and the lawns appear 80% green today (without squinting or using a magnifying glass).  Further afield, the sod tables still appear to be a dozen hues of winter-beige, but this is only because they are covered with long dry grasses that conceal all the subtle greening happening below.

It will be hard to leave this heady dose of spring and return to Upper Michigan (although it has been warm there, too, and the ice melted early):  along the shoreline of Lake Superior, our lilacs won’t be blossoming until mid June.  Until Friday, at least, I’m loving the sight of buds…..