The first trailing arbutus was in bloom today — just one clump up on Laurel Ridge Trail. This is not quite the first native wildflower: the nondescript Pennsylvania bittercress was in bloom a couple days ago. The unseasonable warmth is bringing out the daffodils at an alarming rate, but a cold snap forecast for later in the week should hold them.
On the wood frog front, two, maybe three wood frogs have been calling in the “pond” in the corner of the field, but we haven’t seen any eggs there yet — possibly just because the surface is covered with duckweed. Up at the vernal ponds, by contrast, we have heard no calling, but Mom discovered one wood frog egg mass on March 29th. Perhaps they only call at night, she says. Also, the depth and murkiness of the water there may be preventing us from spotting additional egg masses. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed that a late-spring drought doesn’t dry those ponds up again this year.
–Dave
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Plummer's Hollow, Pennsylvania 
Hey Dave — I hope you get your frogs! Last Sunday, when the sun was warm on my back, I planted some ground cover in my flower bed. Maybe a bit too soon, because now it is cold once again. But this is the stuff (myrtle?) that grows like a plague in the forests around here, even during the winter. So maybe it will survive. Do you know what plant I am referring to? Is it myrtle? Mayhap I will take a picture and post it on my blog.
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Hi Gina – In my experience, myrtle will grow vigorously even from discarded cuttings tossed into a corner of the yard, so your only concern should be how to keep it confined to the area where you want tit to grow. Yes, it can be invasive in wooded areas, but it only spreads vegetatively, I think, so its ecological impact is very localized. It doesn’t quite choke out all the grass, though, so you still have to weed the stuff.
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Weeding, eh? Nothing’s ever easy…
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