This is a little disjointed, so bear with me. (Though maybe it's not that interesting, so don't.)

[conuly]

We have a lone crocus in our yard. We did eventually decide to go with a ramp, and all our yard got torn up, but we now have a crocus. Which is really weird, because I don't recall ever *having* crocuses in our yard before at all....

Our chamomile is also rebounding (as are our terrible weeds...) and two little lettuce plants coming up from the dirt. But mostly we're starting from scratch. Again. I look forward to the chance to agitate for putting in fruit trees.

Ana was the one who noticed the crocus, and I reminded her that it's the first flower of spring.

This got me thinking. A few weeks ago, out of boredom, I looked up "Katniss" to see if it was a real plant, and lo and behold it is. Katniss is a Native American name for it, though. The common English name is "Arrowhead". Meaningful! And then I remembered that Primrose indicates "first love", which didn't make sense at all, but I looked up primroses and found out that they are, in many areas, one of the first flowers of spring. (Not so much here, they're not native to the US.) So it is vaguely meaningful for a kid who was destined (sorta) to be called to kill and die at the earliest opportunity. (Except that didn't actually happen, as a matter of fact, but it could have.)

That the crocus is the first flower of spring (that and forsythia, which is popular enough) is something so ingrained in my thoughts that I can say it without thinking. But now, I remember a book that had a character say that it's spring when you can step on a daisy, and now primroses can be a first flower of spring, and in some areas the robin is the first *bird* of spring, but if I've seen one I don't know it.

So what IS the first sign of spring where you're from? Is it a plant or flower? Is it a change in the weather - getting warmer, raining more? Is it an animal, robins or... I don't know, some migratory critter? Is it seeing children bringing home lion and lamb crafts from preschool and kindergarten and the first grade (in much the same way that they bring home snowflakes in December and hand turkeys in November, yes)? Is it people dressing in brighter colors or lighter clothes? How do you know spring has sprung?

Comments

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Here in California it's when it stops raining, lol. At least that's the one I notice.

[conuly]

*grins*

The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella
But chiefly on the just because
The unjust stole the just's umbrella.

[rachelkachel]

Snowdrops are the first flowers here. At least, in our yard, but they're pretty darn early anyway. Ours got snowed on in late February.

I guess I personally consider it spring when the daffodils start sprouting - which they are now doing, although they're a ways yet from blooming.

[conuly]

Daffy-down-dilly went to town
In her yellow petticoat and her green gown

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Well, of course there are many first signs of spring - when snow melts and stays away for a week while, when you come home from work before it gets dark, when temperatures climb above 5°C...
Additionally, spring kind of comes in stages here - pre-spring, Easter spring and post-spring, so to say, so what we call spring would probably still qualify as winter in other places.

But the thing that makes most people go all "Yay! spring is upon us!" here is the common snowdrop (even though that is technically a winter plant). Once the snowdrops flower, you know it's only a week or two to crocuses and willows and a month to forsythia and narcissas and easter eggs. And after that? Well after that, there's too many flowers and birds and stuff to count. ;)
(Robins definitely wouldn't be the first bird of spring in these parts, as robins stay here for the winter so you see them all the time.)

[conuly]

(Robins definitely wouldn't be the first bird of spring in these parts, as robins stay here for the winter so you see them all the time.)

I wonder if the only robin that's a first-sign-of-spring is the American robin (which isn't a robin at all, of course).

[amygooglegirl.livejournal.com]

Daffodils, definitely (which have just started blooming here this weekend! Very exciting.)

Also lambs, but I don't see them in my daily life, sadly.

[conuly]

Well, of course, the lambs are for "In like a lion and out like a lamb".

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd recognize a snowdrop if I saw one. It's only recently that I learned crocuses.

There's the day you walk outside and the sun has warmth to it. That's not so much spring as an end of winter, a little bit of what's to come.

There are flowers, of course. That's mostly what I use. I like plants. I have a great attachment to cherry blossoms, which are a Definitely Solidly Spring thing along with daffodils.

Robins... they overwinter. Very confusing.

[conuly]

It's only recently that I learned crocuses.

Really?

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I saw them my first spring in Iowa City and commented about the tiny little tulip things. I wasn't outside as much before then and they weren't used near me, I guess.

[redbird]

When I was growing up in Queens, one year a single daffodil appeared under our forsythia bush. We had planted no daffodils, anywhere in the yard. Our best guess was that an enterprising squirrel had found the bulb, dug it up, and reburied it. (I read somewhere that squirrels won't eat daffodils, but maybe that's why this one was left alone.) Or maybe it, and your crocus, actually grew from seed.

My partner cattitude feels strongly that it's not spring until he has seen a crocus and a robin, but snowdrops often appear before crocuses.

[conuly]

Squirrels might not eat daffodils, but they definitely eat crocuses, which is *why* my mother doesn't plant them.

Personally, I don't like plants that grow from bulbs much at all.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

crocus, definitely. Or sometimes snowdrops.