sun, ice, sun

there was snow on the ground when i got home from work yesterday...

there was ice on the blooms too...

i brushed it off with no apparent damage at the time...

today it looks as though we may have lost a petal...however the parts essential to producing as berry are still very much intact so we will keep an eye on things and see how it progresses...

in the meantime the stolons continue to reach out for new horizons and produce new leaf growth...they are actually heading into a no man's land of future shade as the jerusalem artichokes rear up...there will be some coaxing and cajoling into a different path..human intervention in the lives of plants...it is for their own good this time however..we will be pinning them in the sun so they can grow...we may pot a few and give them as presents as well...everyone needs some berries.

another generation

this afternoon i count eleven fully opened blooms in the south bed..

and twenty-seven flower buds on the plants in the south bed...but the hum of activity doesn't stop there...

we already have two stolons on the march...the race for space is on for the new generation...and it will be a race...

the south side of the south bed has seen the expected return of the relentless jerusalem artichokes...there may be some training and pinning of stolons involved but we will find co-existence...

must be spring

it's been a while....but it has been winter...i was home from work and feeling a bit weary...however i decided to get out in the yard and look around a bit before dark..and along with the asparagus, winter wheat, winter rye, and ramp beds the beds with the strawberries are one of the regular stops..i wasn't expecting very much...the berry plants are robust and green and have clearly come through a difficult ( read cold ) winter with no problem...and that is what i expected to find...green leaves sunning themselves...

i was nosing around and taking a few photos when a bit of white caught my eye...

and it turned out to be three blooms...these are in the south bed which is the sunniest of the lot and so it is not a surprise to find the first blooms here...the rest of the tribe is still greening out around the yard...it is , however, six days earlier than last season...april twenty-ninth was the first sign of blooms last year..is that significant? unknown...it is, for the nonce, just earlier...if they turn up on april seventeenth in 3030 we will have a possible line of evidence on a changing climate...right now all it is is berries a few days earlier.