I don't know how it is for you, but spring is finally here for me. This "finally" is not well used here because spring has come even a little earlier, but it wants to show the impatience I have been waiting for this season.

After a winter that didn't feel like winter, it was more like a mix of spring and fall, and I feared that nature had gone haywire and no longer knew the natural order of the seasons.

Now I am reassured and have proof that nature knows what needs to be done.

This was a long time ago, in my childhood. Over 60 years ago, I knew that spring must begin in the middle of March. The winter snow was almost gone, and I would go into the woods to look for a particular flower that blooms just at the beginning of spring. This violet plant was blossoming among the dry leaves and snow.

Several years ago, I planted some plants from the forest in my small backyard in the city. Every year, at the beginning of spring, they bloom, and they are not really the first to bloom, but for me, they have remained, forever, the first!

Some flowers appear as soon as the snow melts. Strangely, some call them violets. Children pick them in the forest and bring them to the market. I bought some and planted them in my yard.

These "violets" differ from the first violets in that they are bulb plants; they are, I think, related to snowdrops.

I also grow snowdrops in my backyard, hidden in various darker corners.

Another tiny flower that appears at the beginning of spring, which, curiously enough, is also called violet!

Some flowers are even faster than violets and snowdrops. I also have a couple of Helleborus variants that have been getting ready to bloom since February, mainly under the snow cover.

During an atypical winter this year, the helleborus grew quickly and bloomed profusely without snow or cold.

One last early spring flower, Primrose, is ready to bloom. Primroses are common flowers that we buy in the fall or early spring for yards, gardens, or balconies. They are inexpensive and spectacular, and they come in various colors.

I rely mostly on photos in all my blogs. Words don't help me as much as photos.

_{I always start with photos when I want to write a blog. Photos remind me of places, events, and feelings that turn into words. When I post in Photography Lovers the words have even less importance, they are a companion to the photos I want to show. This often makes the story uninteresting or common, yet it is necessary; otherwise, the photos would merely be a series of unexciting images.}

_{I make this statement as a plea to those reading not to over-judge the text and to focus on the photos.}

_{A wise saying goes that a photograph is worth a thousand words, but I don't think so.
It depends on the viewer.}

I'm watching you!!