12 April 2012 - Spring snow

It is only the 12th of April, and we have already had two snowstorms. The first snow was on April Fool's Day. Fitting.  The second was today. This last week has been nothing but pure Spring.  Temps in the high 70s, warm winds that worked hard on blowing leaves and blossoms out on the trees. It worked.

The wild cherries have started to creep up the mountain and are beginning to bloom. You can see the faint tint of green beginning to show as well.


I'm sure these trees are the results of birds and deer, but it is nice to see something else growing on our rather bare hillside.


Most of the vegetation on this western exposure consists of scrub oak, sage brush and patches of prickly pear cactus.

Other garden plants have escaped and moved up the hill as well. The bright green under these rocks is a euphorbia, a fairly common ground cover in this area. Again, these were probably another result of the deer.


 I recently learned there are over 2000 varieties of euphorbia. The world is an amazing place.

Here in my yard, the quince is blooming, the crabapple buds are so full and ready to burst that the tree looks pink, the maples are blooming, the lilacs have purple spikes, the plums are in full bloom. It is lovely.


Last fall we planted crocuses in the lawn so we now have spots of bright color popping up.


It is such a fabulous time to be alive.

Another great thing about living here is you can see the storms moving across the valley. Depending on the direction of the accompanying wind you may get the strong, briny smell of the Great Salt Lake before the rain hits.

In this case we had a dust storm with the wind, then heavy rain before it turned to snow.  

Before the rain, as the clouds were moving down the mountain, it looked like this.


Lots of new little chartreuse leaves, but they didn't last long. Here's the same shot from inside.About 20 minutes later.