Spring peepers (tiny frogs), chorus frogs (a variation on the same theme) and wood frogs were in full chorus yesterday afternoon here in Maryland. Rain and temperatures up around 60 degrees F are predicted for the rest of the week, perfect peeper weather. Peepers are right up there with sopranino recorders, wood frogs are quacking viols. You have to listen carefully to hear the wood frogs barking under the racket made by the peepers and chorus frogs. A combination of natural and man-made land masses cradle the local peeper ponds in a sort of amphitheater; the sound of the full choruses travels well throughout the nearby residential neighborhoods. We’re about a quarter mile away from the ponds; all I have to do to hear them is to step out onto the deck on the back of the house. Magnolia stellata is showing white already! If I wanted to make up a small bouquet to bring into the house, I would have these to choose from: winter aconites, crocuses, snowdrops, the earliest daffodils, witch hazels, mahonia, hellebores, winter jasmine and by this afternoon or tomorrow, some magnolias. Wintersweet was in bloom last week, and in some local gardens but not here winter honeysuckle is starting to bloom. Bird song gets better daily: they know spring is here. Local geese seem very restless now: each morning while I walk the dog one will fly overhead very low honking loudly, as if trying to make up its mind whether to stay for the summer or head north. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/