What's Goin On?

  Christmas Day I was up early enough to watch the sunrise. I stepped out on my deck on this very warm morning and heard a symphony of Nature, a symphony way out of place for this time of the year. If I didn't know better I would have thought I was transported to the Springtime. The main players were the Spring Peepers, a loud background chorus to the singing of birds.
  We have been having some unseasonable weather for almost two weeks now and it hasn't stopped raining for at least ten days. This was the first morning in a long time I could actually see some color in the sky, which prompted me to go out and look at this rare site.Yesterday during a rare break in the rain, I walked around the property a bit and was surprised to see all the plants that were being fooled by the weather. My lawn is covered in purple Violet flowers! Dandelions are huge and blooming, the Daffodils are about ready to flower, the Forsythia have some blooms on them, Henbit and Purple Dead Nettle are blooming, and where I work, there are Azailia Flowers blooming!
  It's New Years Day and I was out mowing my lawn today, crazy! It did get cooler today and it didn't actually rain, though the sun never came out, so I was able to spend sometime outdoors doing chores. It's amazing how much it looks like Spring out there.
  I have this patch of Chickweed that I have been harvesting since the weather cooled down last month. I keep getting out there thinking this may be the last day I will get to harvest, expecting the weather to get cold and killing it off, but the patch keeps getting larger and larger and is spreading all over the front lawn.
  As crazy as this all is, I am getting a bunch of free food I normally wouldn't get this time of year so that's good. I just wonder what effect it will have on the plants when the real Spring comes around.

The chickweed counter at my local Nature market!

Peace, and happy Winter Solstice