Heedless of the calendar, a clump of daffodils in the back yard flowered last week just before the false spring turned back to harsh winter. The flowers withstood the ice but wilted fast when temperatures fell below 20 degrees.
I had spotted forsythia bushes pushing out yellow blooms in a sunny spot along U.S. 158.
Green tops of bulbs are pushing up through the mulch in several spots, and I want to tell them, “Not yet!” Don’t be so impulsive or you will be nipped in the bud, a term I appreciate better now. Wait a little and flower in safety.
A couple days of March-like weather returned this week, sure to confuse those bulbs further.
Chickweed, however, seems unaffected by temperatures, no matter how cold. It has prospered through winter in the yard … until I zapped it with herbicide.
A flock of migrating robins descended on the neighborhood early this week. Daylight is becoming perceptibly longer …
If we can avoid losing our buds, spring may arrive at long last.

Because of the editor and the NFL, Mocksville residents won’t be chowing down on “Super Bowl” pizza this weekend. Instead, they must settle for “Big Game” pizza because of the copyright restrictions of the NFL, which scouts for abusers of its franchise most-important sporting event of the year.
The pizzeria wanted to advertise its pizza as “Super Bowl” specials. Similarly, TV stores once marked down their merchandise as “Super Bowl” savings. No more. Now the clever dodge is to call them “Big Game” specials, an editorial twist of words that meets the guidelines. Same pizza. Same big screen TVs. Same savings. But they don’t run afoul of the copyright enforcement lawyers or sully the name of the Super Bowl.
Eating pizza may be the best part of Sunday’s game. The difficulty will be deciding whom to root for between two teams that have never enjoyed my affection. I have opted for the Ravens because their offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell once coached at Wake Forest. That’s the best I can do to make an emotional connection. I’ll savor the pizza.

What don’t we know about William R. Davie, namesake of Davie County and one of its elementary schools? We’ll have to read the historical novel, “The Secrets of Sterling Shearin,” by historian Dr. Will Ferrell to find out.
Davie was a Revolutionary War hero and eventual head of the University of North Carolina. A titillating press …