Phenology
One of the popular German names for the common daffodil is Osterglocke, i.e. "Easter bell". Supposedly, they flower around Easter in our climate, hence the name - but in most years, they only flower a bit after Easter, at least in the region where I live.
This year, they've already begun to bloom.
It isn't even Lent yet.
(Granted, this year's Lent and Easter are pretty damn late. But still, the fact remains that our typical just-after-Easter flower is flowering in February.)
In that light, nobody will be surprised about the snowdrops, crocuses and celandines, which have joined the hazels, birches and willows in feeding my bees, who started going out yesterday. It was the typical first-sunny-days-of-spring spectacle. For those who are new to the party, bees keep in their pee and crap all winter, so as soon as it's warm enough for them to fly, they zoom out of their box to crap all over the countryside. This is called their Reinigungsflug, i.e. "hygiene flight", though I don't know what it's properly called in English.
Most of them will afterwards sit in small groups on the sun-warmed wood of their box or its dais (it's really a transportable pallet, but dais sounds more dignified) and watch those poor sods among them who have to work the foraging shift. (Contrary to popular belief, bees don't actually work 24/7.) Well, I have no clue whether they actually watch the busy workers or whether they're just chillin'. But they could if they wanted to. And if bees were human, they'd surely sit in those nice comfy sunny spots, watching their unfortunate sisters carry home their loads. Probably making snide comments, too...
The cranes and wild geese are returning - you can see and hear them pass up above.
Felix and I did some weeding (that is, I did the weeding and he emptied his little toy bucket into the big weed bucket). Unfortunately, it was raining today, but it's supposed to be dry (if a little colder, but still close to 10°C) tomorrow, so maybe we can do some more gardening then.
It's still a very weird spring, because on the one hand it certainly looks and feels like April in the daytime, but on the other hand the sun still disappears behind our uphill neighbours' house around 3 pm, and then it suddenly gets dark(ish) and cold and you remember that it's still a week to go until March.
Yesterday evening, Jörg tried to save a bird that had apparently got stuck in a cover panel above the kitchen. (We found out because Darcy-cat was standing on the kitchen windowsill, trying to reach the panel.) I say "tried" because the silly bird (not understanding that Jörg was trying to help, of course) withdrew in the hindmost corner where none could reach it, and then stopped moving. Jörg left the panel open, so with some luck, the bird escaped later on. If it didn't, well, we did give it a chance. >_>
Ah, Spring.