There are many earlier blooming flowers. There are also many more beautiful flowers. But for me, forsythia means Spring.

Blooming Forsythia – Means Spring is Here

Snow drops, daffodils, buttercups and various other flora are starting to festoon the ground around where I live. There are also a number of bird calls that begin around now that are a clear harbinger of Spring. I find them all both beautiful and a sign of hope for warmer weather. But I always look for the gangly, unkempt clumps of yellow flowers of the forsythia. For me, that always assures me that Spring has arrived.

Strangely, there’s an old custom/warning about forsythia…the “Three Snows” Rule“. A popular piece of weather folklore states that there will be three snows after the forsythia blooms. While these may just be flurries, the saying warns gardeners not to plant too early. This “rule” isn’t typically my experience with forsythia, but honestly, I only just heard this forsythia lore. We’ll see how true it is this year.

Suffice it to say, I am never so hopeful and happy as when the forsythia are in bloom. The feature image today was me just after a bike ride in 73 degree weather. Hopeful and happy, indeed.

Current Knitting

I thought I’d have finished the Honey Cowl by now, but I’ve still got some knitting to go.

A couple of days ago, I was almost at the 11″ mark, but had to rip back and tink about 4″. You’ll note there is very little yarn remaining in the first ball, so I had switched to a new ball of yarn. But given the nature of kettle-dyed yarn, the color variation in the new ball was too obvious.

I’ve decided to add a 4″ stripe of taupe yarn and then finish it off with the remainder of the current ball of yarn.

You can see the second ball is lighter than the first ball by quite a bit. And the tan/taupe yarn is also the Manos del Uruguay Wool/Silk blend yarn. We’ll see whether I like a color-stripe in this stitch pattern.