Spring Wildflowers
and More Signs of Spring
The first wildflower we saw blooming in our yard this Spring was Fleabane, back in mid-February; here it is in my Perpetual Journal!
I haven’t seen any more Western Bluebirds in our yard since I painted those for my 2023 Perpetual Journal entry. We’ve only seen these beautiful birds in our yard a handful of times and the ones we saw last year may have been part of an irruption (a sudden increase in an animal/bird population). An irruption can happen when northern-wintering birds move further south because of low food availability.
A couple of weeks after our Fleabane started blooming this year, one of our Tufted Evening Primroses started blooming. The fragrant flowers of the Primrose bloom in the evening through the next morning and attract Sphinx Moths. Here’s my Perpetual Journal art of Primrose flowers (past, present and future) as well as last year's snow, which fortunately (in my opinion!) I haven’t seen in our yard since then. The only snow I’ve seen has been in the distance, up on the mountains.
So far this year we’ve seen more than 20 species of wildflowers blooming in our yard including Baja Fairy Duster, Bladderpod, Brittlebush, Chia, Chihuahuan Sage, Creosote, Desert Blue Bells, Desert Marigold, Dyssodia, Fleabane, London Rocket, Lupine, Mexican Poppy, Ocotillo, Owl's Clover, Penstemon, Popcorn Flower, Sowthistle, Triangle Leaf Bursage, and Tufted Evening Primrose.
🧐 An Interesting Point about Perpetual Journals
The pages of many Perpetual Journals, such as the one I keep, are arranged in weeks: January 1-7, January 8-14, January 15-21, etc. You may realize, however, that 365 days a year divided by 7 doesn’t equal an exact number of weeks (365/7 = 52.14). So what happens with that extra day each year? And then what happens in a leap year? These Perpetual Journal Conundrums 😁 are solved by making the “week” of December 24-31 have 8 days, and in leap years such as 2024 the Perpetual Journal “week” of February 26-March 4 also has 8 days instead of the usual 7 in non-leap years.
More Signs of Spring
Besides wildflowers, we’ve also seen other signs of Spring, like bright green Desert Willow leaves emerging.
What signs of Spring are you seeing where you live?
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Thank you! I think the cherry blossoms "count" in the sense that they're heralds of Spring, of growth, and of the world renewing itself.
"whites, yellows, pinks, purples, and magentas are everywhere from ground level to high tree branches" - sounds beautiful! Enjoy!