(no subject)

One of the first spring flowers we get is coltsfoot. The flowers (NOT DANDELIONS!! THESE ARE NOT DANDELIONS!!) are more spring to me than daffodils because they aren't planted flowers. Planted flowers blooming for springtime seems like, well, like cheating. Coltsfoot grows along the sides of dirt roads, in disturbed soils. It's kind of a weed, not something people plant. The flowers are only about three or four inches tall and they grow up as naked stems with bright yellow flowers that follow the sun, all heliotropic and stuff.

Three ways you know these are not dandelions:

1. Coltsfoot has sort of leafy stems where dandelions have smooth stems.
2. Coltsfoot blooms before it has leaves where dandelions have leaves first and then bloom.
3. Dandelions come along much later in the season of warming while coltsfoot is one of the earliest spring wildflowers in these parts.

So. Not dandelions, damn it. I trust we are all clear on that now?

Also, today is my birthday. I'm thirty-five.