![New West - area by porch crop Jan. 2023.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/EprVXSRdBU2DSPmobXLwk5VWXH7BE5oQR4hDxLK9YafBsFxWEkA9xhFybbWLLB6PnMT.jpg)

I’ve not accomplished much in the last few days. My helper came to take me out for errands on Wednesday morning. We’d gotten back around 11AM and she was commenting on how stuff was still growing in this garden by the front steps. It’s the New West garden.

I’d mentioned how many bulbs had come up a month or so ago, so we were looking for them to see if there were more. Mind you, having bulbs up in late December or January is NOT the norm, by any stretch.

![New West - first snowdrop crop Jan. 25, 2023.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/EoEpZsfGFts2ZTSWvM8qeFmq7bcaQRpci7eWb2TsXEaHTsTNHCVVXTCZNpo8jKQNoWu.jpg)

And then she spotted it! In the front of the area where the porch support ends, a single snowdrop bud. She got my camera and got down in there and took this photo for me. (She had just told me she had signed up for a photography class at a local community college.)

![South - snowdrops crop Jan. 17 2016.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/23tmDhC8tauuWdnx4khuBV3312Ju9CzTiSA7P3KcHdAo8qRbxfj6u5LXX6ZZ4cNkyYwMU.jpg)

I knew there had been snow drops and iris reticulata that had come up in January off and on over the years. But they had always been on the South garden and had only done it when we were burning the wood stove in the cellar.  The wall of the cellar runs along that South garden.

So I did a search to see if I could find the earliest flower in my archives. I found the one above, dated on my birthday, January 17, 2016. I used to put bird netting down to keep the cats from using the gardens as litter boxes.

![South -  snowdrops2 crop Jan. 25, 2012.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/EoEqTdB96gB5JN3yUjivVScrXoEYUzTijAiZuC3g3RkHNKSVRiBka8PZYUbQucThEhN.jpg)

Another, with more bird netting, was dated January 25, 2012.

![South - 1st snowdrop crop Feb. 2018.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/Eq5EQTqLAwNr41yKkXrFk5Vv56L16XHP9sxJ6K85rs5WFEtRLcJ71ARYvkUwoEtF2qt.jpg)

I found a couple from February, this one February 15, 2018, in the South garden the very last year we burned the wood stove in the cellar.

![East - iris reticulata1 crop Feb. 2018.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/goldenoakfarm/23zbUC3KpPrTMNSPvsTRqnazHFf84XNpyZy1fDfPvyrbViw2RfrPvxCMdNvNMY3eh5eJP.jpg)

I also found this iris reticulata that had come up in the East garden on February 20, 2018. This garden also borders a wall of the cellar where the wood stove is, but is farther away from the stove.

I think the reason the snowdrop was up in the New West garden is that the vents for the gas water heater come out near there. It’s a south facing area between the porch and house but doesn’t really get a lot of sun. But the stone must retain enough heat to make things be able to continue to grow when it’s not too cold. It’s not been too cold this month so far.

So that was a cheerful thing to find during all the gloom of storms rolling through that have composed the last 2 weeks.