Marching into Spring

Hail bounced off the greenhouse this week as I thinned out hundreds of baby seedlings safe inside. It's amazing how much protection a thin sheet of plastic can provide. No snow, no driving rains and a good 10 to 20 degrees warmer during the day now. Although we live in zone 8, I think the greenhouse must make it zone 9 which puts us fairly close to heaven. Yes, heaven is probably in zone 10.
March rages on outside with tantrums of rain, wind and snow but it can't stop the daffodils. They've just started blooming here. After the long, wet drudgery of winter in the Northwest, the color and fragrance of daffodils is like manna from the sky. My thoughts on this beautiful but often overlooked flower:

They loved the tulip, poppy and iris;

They painted roses by the score.

But what about the daffodil,
Snubbed by painters evermore?

Fragrance of spring, form exquisite;

Colors bright and blooms galore!
Why not a still life from dear Vincent,
Or a landscape by Renoir?

Alas, I fear, it is the trumpet

Jutting out from that fine face.
Every time you try to draw it
It comes out wrong and you erase!
                                       -S.M.