A Pacific Northwest Winter's Slow Fade into Spring Flowers

 

It's Spring Equinox Eve here in the Northern Hemisphere as I write this, and winter's grip is loosening in the Pacific Northwest. 

Our weather is still chilly, damp, and snowing in the mountains. But signs of spring are bursting out all over.

In western Washington where I live, while we can have freakishly warm winter days (more common than it used to be) and infuriatingly wet and chilly summer days (my most miserable cold day ever was a July sailing trip in the San Juan Islands), we do have four distinct seasons.

Every year I say autumn is my favorite season. Then I relish winter's biting chill and sometimes snow in the lowlands. 

But when spring rolls in and flowers and green emerges all over again, it's molto bellissimo. (That's very beautiful, but with an Italianesque flair for dramatic proclamations).

Red flowering currant

This past winter has had its moments. There was that gorgeous week of snow between Christmas and New Year, with skiing around Seattle. And there were some awesome days skiing at Crystal Mountain.

View from the top of Green Valley at Crystal; Stuart Range in the distance.

But evidence of spring started in February. The first sign of spring renewal each year for me is the delicate snowdrops that grow feral in Carkeek Park near my home. Every year I feel compelled to seek them out with my camera, despite having many shots from prior years.

Then the brown forest floor layered with last fall's downed leaves suddenly becomes green again with sweet coltsfoot, which comes up in late February.

Delicate crocus are also an early harbinger of spring, and it's like a treasure hunt spotting random patches of them around my neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods that I regularly walk.

And I can't forget the hellebores. They're a real workhorse flower to get us through the later winter and early spring. 

And especially just in the last week, suddenly it's all over - cherry blossoms, daffodils fully up and open (and up in the Skagit Valley too), violets, and much more.

I hear the cherry blossoms are close to peaking over at the University of Washington's Quad, which has become an event that draws visitors and photographers from all over. When I was a student there, it was just picturesque to walk through between classes.

Native skunk cabbage are also unfurling in our forest and woods now; I think its flower looks like something you'd more likely find in the tropics.

Since the daffodils are in bloom up in the Skagit north of Seattle, I'll head up for a look. I'm hoping tomorrow's rainy and cool weather will keep people away. 

Do you have a favorite spring flower or blossom, wherever you are? Honestly, I can't pick a favorite, or rather, it varies day to day. I'll take them all, in their season.

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