For the past 3 years Michael and I have taken winter trips to warm tropical places: Mexico and  Nicaragua.

This year we’re not.

And I’m getting antsy. The gray rainy weather is getting tiring and the mud, everywhere mud.

The dismal dregs of fall linger among the refreshing greens of spring. Yes, it has been warm and little signs of spring are starting to show. Of course the temperate rain forest we live in can look quite tropical at times, though the temperatures warrant a down vest. I didn’t even have to get into the car to visit this bit of jungle which is the back half of our property that slumps into Carnation Marsh. These large stands of, what I am assuming are, Sitka  sedge (Carex aquatilis var dives), the moss draped cedars (Thuja plicata) and vine maples ( Acer circinatum), and the giant sword ferns ( Polystichum munitum) make it hard for this Wisconsin boy to imagine it is February though I’ve nearly lived half my life here.

This large cedar fell  into the marsh last summer but shows no sign of dying. Even if the tree itself died the moss, lichens and ferns which encrust it would live on.

The one thing I will miss this year are tropical colors, but we have our color here too. This native red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea spp. occidentalis) gladly shares the edges of our property with 2 invasives: reed canary grass and himalayan blackberry. And of course there are fragrantly flowering plants like in the tropics.This Primavera witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) is living up to it’s description in the Forest Farm catalogue: ” Sweetly-scented and exceedingly floriferous.”

I even picked the tender green leaves of the heirloom  cabbage Couve Trondhuda. I know it’s not a mango or a coconut….

And the first tulips are showing leaves…..

…. spring can’t be as far off as the tropics feel right now.