Still February but Spring will come

In homage to Spring, which is little ways off yet in our neck of the woods,

a vintage image of Heartsease.

 

  

Heartsease /Johnny-Jump-Up

 From the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic plants a little about this harbinger of spring.

Scientific Name: Viola tricolor

Jefferson recorded sowing seeds of "Tricolor" at Shadwell, his boyhood home, on April 2, 1767. It was grown in American gardens before 1700, although the first documented citation known is by John Lawson in History of Carolina (1718). Native over large areas of Europe and western Asia, this ancestor of our modern pansy has many common names, including wild pansy, ladies' delight, and jump-up-and-kiss-me. The name "pansy" derives from the French word pensée, an analogy used by Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "and there is pansies, that's for thoughts." It is a hardy, spring-flowering perennial grown as an annual with charming, pansy-like flowers showing three colors in shades of purple, yellow, and white.

Here is another freely shared vintage card from this website; http://wordplay.hubpages.com/hub/vintage-flowers# where you will also find  a collection of vintage images of birds and birthday cards and roses and seed packets.  A delightful wander for a moment or two while the snow continues to melt.

 

Just 10 miles down the road at our nearest neighbours homestead we hear the Blackbirds have returned.  This is early for our redwinged beauties to be back so perhaps spring is closer than we think.  This pic is from spring two years ago.