Already!?

Yesterday I visited a friend down in Crestline.  I was amazed to see daffodils blooming already!

And an ornamental fruit tree (I always forget what these are called).

And dandelions already in the puff-ball stage!  Crestline is around 5,000 feet in elevation, and Spring usually arrives there about a week and a half before it gets up here.  It's just crazy that these things are blooming in February!  (Usually, Spring arrives in April, sometimes as late as mid May, and gardeners never planted annuals until after Memorial Day).  Also, her Camellia bush is blooming.  So pretty...

But, this little creature was such a wonderful surprise:

A squirrel!!!  She said she's been feeding two, yes TWO of them for about a month now.  We're both hoping that they're a breeding pair, but she can't get a close enough look at the "deciding factors" to tell.  A plague wiped out all the squirrels up here in 2008, so most people are very happy when a squirrel is sighted.  There were three visiting my feeders, but I've only seen one lately.  I'd like to think that the two at my friend's house came from my house, but the distance is just too far.

Meanwhile, the weather people are saying that we're supposed to get a light dusting of snow on Sunday.  I'm hoping that this is the first wedge that will break this weather pattern that we're stuck in so the west can get cool, wet weather and the east can thaw out.  My thoughts and prayers are with all the animals and people in parts of the U.S. and Canada who are struggling with the terrible cold and huge amounts of snow.