More blooms are coming out every day.

It is great to see, even on a gray day when we are getting some much-needed rain.

The yellow of the forsythia is everywhere around southern Maine – and it seems to be a good year for them. Too often when there is little snow and especially cold temperatures, the blooms come only where the plants were covered by snow.

We have no traditional forsythia, but our white forsythia is in bloom. Now, the white forsythia is neither white – it's sort of a light pink – nor a forsythia, being from a different plant family entirely, Abeliophyllum distichum. It does look like a forsythia, though, and is a nice plant.

Nancy took a couple of photos of some good-looking plants we have seen.

A friend of ours has a gorgeous andromeda, or Pieris, in bloom right now. Brouwer's Beauty was a Cary Award winner in 2000, and I think this is what this is, but I am not sure.

Another native, growing in the shade by a stone wall in our yard is bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. I love the low-growing blooms early in the season, and the plants act like a ground cover for the rest of the season.

Anyway, enjoy the rain. May it be just enough for the plants and to reduce the danger of brush fires but not enough to cause any floods.

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