Could this really be the start of spring?

I just received a Plant Haven email about their latest Royal Hawaiian Colocasia.  Nothing says warmth more than a tropical with Hawaiian in its name.  I'll keep my eyes open at Canada Blooms (starting this Friday) to see if I might purchase either a plant or tuber.  The 'glamour shots' look quite lovely.

Finally got my seed orders in and have received - 3 oz of Double Shirley Poppies for Kevin's clients that I re-package with a branded label. There are 260,000 seeds per oz so, I'm going to have hours of fun getting them into the wee envelopes pretending that I'm a drug dealer.

For my garden I've ordered from Gardens North and Stokes:

So not as many as usual because my garden will have to be redone after the tree removal.  But a few interesting things that have good leaves.  Two different types of Heuchera - they do really well in dry shade.  I'd grown 'Dales Strain' years ago, and am doing it again - looking at simplifying things - more of one variety - and more varieties that take less fussing over.  You can see the Stokes order better if you click on it.  If it works out well, I should have lots of little daisy faces smiling up at me with the Cosmos, Coreopsis and Matricaria.  I'll be placing my vegetable order with Renee's shortly - I've always had great success with her seed - good germination and taste.  Plus I like the fact that she mixes up several varieties in one package - so for someone like me with a smallish veggie garden, I can try more.

This past Sunday, Kevin, Bart and I took our winter pilgrimage down to Niagara Falls to check out the ice bridge.  You can get a bit of an idea of the traffic.  There was a steady stream of income for the local police - there's no stopping/parking on this road, so the cops spent their afternoon handing out tickets...at a substantially higher price than the $15Cdn to park for as long as you like.

Kevin's buddy Lorne gave him the hat and asked me to take his picture for him.  Kevin is a Habs fan.

I was disappointed when it was so cloudy, but as we waited and watched....slowly the clouds moved away and the sun came out.  On the right are the American Falls - can you believe all the ice in front of them?

Does that ice form look like an elephant to you too?

A little closer:

I could have stayed all day - as the light changed, everything about the Falls looked different:

Can you imagine being there when these bits start to break up?

So cold, and yet so beautiful:

Back to the top of the Canadian Falls:

Back at home, we were able to resume our morning walk to the Lake. The sidewalks were clear. Look who we found bonking his head on a hydro pole:

Lake Ontario did not freeze over - but you're looking at ice here that is about 1.5 meters thick close to shore:

And one last thing.  I'm taking another Coursera MOOC 'Ignite Your Everyday Creativity' through the State University of New York/Buffalo.  First assignment was to decorate a fork, glass or lightbulb.  After a good clean-out this January, the last thing I wanted around was a craft item so I decided to make a glass out of ice - here's my video (skills learned at the last MOOC out of University of Houston):

 

and what the glass looks like today:

So if you follow the signs: seeds arriving, tropical plants to purchase, Canada Blooms about to start, walks by the Lake, and a melted glass full of lettuce seeds, it is clear - the warmth of spring is just around the corner.