Think Spring!

Day 109: Spring is coming! Of course to date we haven't had much winter in the Pacific Northwest other than a cold snap which lasted a few days in early December but here, pussywillows are a January item. The earliest varieties seem to be the cultivated types: big catkins borne close together on fat, stiff stems. The smaller wild ones won't show up until later, and they are growing increasingly hard to find. For many years, I've hunted them down, picking just a few twigs to put in a vase in honor of Spring's return. Occasionally, the slips root in water, but until a few years ago, my transplanting efforts failed. That said, I was finally successful with one of the fat-catkin varieties and planted it at the corner of my garage. For a while, it looked like I might lose it to the deer and elk, so I wrapped the lower branches with harsh plastic netting to deter them. I am happy to say that the tree is now about ten feet tall and the varmints are leaving it alone.