Erica's Stitches

The pasque flowers are finally peeking out of the ground a little late this year. The temperature barely made it out of the teens earlier this week and the wind was brutal so some of them appear a little worse off than usual. But, the important thing is that they are here signally another spring with warmer weather and flowers!

Happy Spring - That's a sentiment that keeps me going from January until about now. I bought this piece at a fundraising sale and it comes up every year to brighten my office. I don't know who the designer or the stitcher was.  I imagine it must have been a kit but I've never seen it anywhere.  Does anybody know. Now, it is officially spring.  Besides being after March 20, the first pasqueflower decided to open up this morning. It may still get cold and snow.  But, it will be a spring snow and the rest of the spring flowers will be along soon.

It is now officially spring.  On March 26, 2011 I spotted the first pasque flower of the year. It has been an incredibly dry winter and I don't expect to see as many flowers as last year.  Usually the pasque flowers are sprouting everywhere and so far I've only spotted a few clumps. If you look out the window it is bright and sunny and I'm tempted to put on shorts and a T-shirt.  But, the sun holds no heat.  With jeans, sweater and fleece jacket it was too cold to stay out for long. But the flower is a sign.  Warmer weather should be coming along any time in the next 3 months.

At the beginning of April the pasqueflowers started blooming and now they are almost finished with their annual showing. The crocus-like blooms announce the beginning of spring.  The end of spring is heralded by their fuzzy seedheads. At the start of spirng, the flowers a few inches tall.  By now they are about 12 inches tall and going to seed. What a transformation!  They seem to be a different species now. I would be sad, but in the last week or so other flowers have started blooming - bluebells, goldenpea, kinnikinnik, desert parsley and assorted weeds. In the next month the penstemon, cranesbill and dogsbane will appear - a summer full of flowers to look out for.

Another name for the pasque flower is prairie crocus.  When they first start blooming they definitely remind me of crocus. I was in town running errands earlier and the grass is turning green and daffodils are blooming.  Higher up where I live only the ponderosa pine and kinnikinnik are green.  But we have the pasque flowers.  Now that they are starting to flower they seem to be everywhere. As they start to open they are purple and fuzzy. And then they open and turn white and yellow barely resembling the flower of a few hours earlier.  Even the bee's have to check them out. As time passes the flowers will change dramatically a few more times.  Stay tuned.

The first pasque flower is now blooming.  That means spring is officially here:  only a few more months of sleet, rain and snow before summer is here!

I found my rarely used diary.  In it I've been noting seasonal changes ... when certain flowers bloom, extraordinary weather, when frosts come ... The pasque flower season is right on schedule. I found years where the pasque flowers have started blooming by now and during other years they are later.  Yesterday I found some just poking out of the ground. They are not easy to see and I don't catch them this early every year.  It may be a week or so before they bloom.  If I waited until today I might not have seen them at all - it's snowing again.  But, spring snow doesn't last long. When it melts, more pasque flowers will start appearing. The main garden area has been under snow for months now and it has just begun to recede.  It doesn't look like much now, but give it a few months.

I'm ready for spring to come so I got out some springlike overdyed floss and played around.  I ended up stitching a woven grid.  I started putting an eyelet stitch in one of the open squares but I didn't like the way it looked.  Maybe I'll just leave it as it is for now. Here in Colorado we don't really get spring.  We have three seasons: dust, ice and mud.  Right now we are midway between ice and mud (with some of each).  We could plunge back into ice for a while or go straight to mud.  One thing is certain.  It's almost time for pasque flowers.  They are the first flower of spring to bloom in the area.  Somewhere I have a diary noting when they've started blooming since we moved.  I can't find it.  I think mid-March is the earliest that I've seen them bloom. We've had warm weather - in the 40's and 50's - and the ground is getting spongy in areas so I think it's getting close.  However, it may need to get a bit warme...