Spring has sprung

We have been having a stretch of warm weather, 40's and 50's. The snow from the last storm is melting rapidly so I had a chance to get a good look at the gardens yesterday. The first thing I noticed was that the daylilies in the orange garden have started to come up. I got all excited and ran over to the semi-shady garden to see if the bleeding heart was making an appearance. It was and right next to it, a columbine. It's one of the heirloom columbines called "Grandmother's Garden" that I have been trying to grow for a while. I checked the William Guiness columbine in the purple garden, but there is no sign of it yet. Spring is definitely on its way. Finally.

I saw the tufted titmouse again a few days ago. When I first saw it and was trying to make an identification, it didn't look exactly like the pictures I saw online. Those were of chubby little birds. The one at my feeder was very slender. When I saw it again, it was all fat and sassy. The poor thing had probably been having difficulty finding enough food before it found my new feeder. He shouldn't have any more problems getting enough to eat. I check my feeders every day and make sure they are filled. After every storm, I even put out more food on top of the snow for the ground feeders because the regular supply has been covered up. The birds are so accustomed to me doing it that mourning doves line up on the fence waiting for me to put out seed.