I usually only note the first flower of the spring, but this year, the second flower also merited mention.
The annual pansies near the mailbox survived the winter! Mike and I joked that it must have been out of spite -
when I planted them last year, I said that I usually don't like annuals because they take up too much water, but the
soil was too poor to try xeric perennials....so, I was planting some annuals to help fertilize the soil for future
perennials. Apparently, the pansies disagreed with the plan!