I was outside refilling my birdfeeders and out of curiosity I began raking back the leaves I put on my bulbs and perennial beds for winter...up are sprouting tulips, peonies, stonecrop, iris, mums, lilies, and gladiolas. If nothing was there yet I would have felt ever so disappointed; but those little shoots give me hope that spring really IS around the corner, although the weather we've been having belies that fact.
