Springtime On The Farm - Part 1

After all the false starts and relapses back to wintry weather, the violets began to bloom in my lawn:

And the tulips I planted last autumn started to flower:

We had several days of freezing cold and snow, but then it began to warm up again. You can see two cows in the background:

The fantail pigeons stayed warm and comfy inside their large room. They've been nesting and laying eggs, but I've not yet seen any sign of fertile or hatching eggs:

My little bantam hens, however, have been laying nicely - and the neighbors are the recipients:

I was upset that only these few Tulips bloomed, and only one variety, so I looked up the package labels of what I planted last year. To my surprise, these were the only Tulips I'd planted. But there were lots of Iris, Lilies and Fritillaria, all of which are pushing up out of the soil and looking promising. The Magnolia in the center, however, did not live. I will replace it with something more cold hardy:

The pasture has been growing faster and faster. The herd now has so much grass that they won't even come in for grain:

I found these Marsh Marigolds in a wet spot alongside a country road. The ground right by the road was dry, so I got a closeup look:

Right next to them were these slightly different plants, with no white on the petals (they're really sepals), slightly different leaves and some flowers with extra petals. I looked them up when I got home, thinking they might be Lesser Celandine, but apparently not. I concluded that they too were Marsh Marigolds:

The spring flower season is already past in many parts of the country, but up here it's just beginning: