Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’ (Tete-a-Tete Daffodil)

Singer and songwriter James Taylor grew up in Chapel Hill, exploring as a child the wooded banks of Morgan Creek before the land along there was developed and fashioned into suburbia. He references this place in his song “Copperline.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2015, Taylor said: “This is another song about home, about my father, about a childhood that was very peaceful, which is a rare thing today. I felt like I was part of a landscape in those days – the trees, the streams and the rivers, the animals that lived there.”
Songfacts. Retrieved February 8, 2020.

During my college days at Carolina, Taylor’s unique voice was a constant in our dorm, as roommate, suite mates and I sang and danced along. I can easily place my freshman self right back at his concert in Carmichael Auditorium, listening to bittersweet sound of “Fire and Rain,” cheering the spirit of his “Carolina In My Mind,” and believing him when he sang “You’ve Got a Friend.”

It was Carole King’s lyrics of this last song that set me thinking down this path this morning, “Winter, spring, summer, or fall.” Our weather is more likely to be “winter, spring, winter, spring, summer, winter, summer, fall, actually summer again, eventually fall, just kidding–summer…” and that is just during a two-week period. It was winter here again at early morning, 27 degrees F. with frosty coatings atop the grass and plants in the garden.

Achillea filipendulina (Fern-leaf Yarrow)

Another line from “You’ve Got a Friend” rang true as well this week: “If the sky… above you should turn dark and full of clouds.” The past few days here were marked by fierce rain, wind and tornado warnings. The river birch easily gave up stray branches all over the yard, the garden sank below standing water for a while. Some trees were down, lots of neighbors lost power, but we were spared. I righted new pots of hellebores that were blown over from a spot where they have been patiently waiting to be planted. If it will dry out a bit I can see that happening soon.

Hellebores

Hellebores

After several weeks of cautious peeking, Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’ and ‘King Alfred’ had finally begun opening earlier in the week, just before being battered by rain

Daffodils In The Rain

Narcissus

Fortunately daffodils are as resilient as they are bright and cheerful.

Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’ (Tete-a-Tete Daffodil)

Winter daphne is beginning to exhibit tiredness and a few of the flowers have begun to fade. The intoxicating fragrance was heightened earlier in the week when temperatures reached 70s, but was not detectable early this cold morning. The sky at 9 a.m. was rich with blue, but gloomy gray clouds descended soon thereafter and hung over the day.

Daphne odora (Winter daphne)

Planted last May this perennial seems poised to flower: Armeria pseudarmeria ‘Ballerina Lilac’. I am anxious to see how it performs but it does seem to have made a too early appearance.

Armeria pseudarmeria ‘Ballerina Lilac’

Armeria pseudarmeria ‘Ballerina Lilac’

I planted over a hundred anemone bulbs in the borders last year. They are very short-lived in my garden but a disappointing number, most in fact, failed to live or show up at all, perhaps victims of squirrels and voles. Now a few extras that I had stuck into plastic pots and tucked among some other plants have emerged the past few weeks. The flower heads are tucked down. Blue or white? Anemone De Caen ‘Mr Fokker’ or A. St Brigid ‘Mt Everest’, which one survived?

Anemone