We’re getting seriously caught off-guard on the early Spring here in Oregon.  Compared to similar photos I took a year ago, it appears we’re running about 4 weeks ahead of last year.  With the deep freeze in December and the cold, dry January, this was certainly unexpected.  As such, we’re scrambling to get everything ready (we live on a small hay farm near Ashland).  Below is a Magnolia tree in our yard taken this afternoon (March 2)… last year it was April 2nd that the tree was like this.  Beautiful as ever, but its a little scary that its so early this year.