Spring has Finally Sprung!!

It finally rained today!!!!!!
There are still some small piles of snow, but most of it has melted and finally we're experiencing spring! Yay!
Rain generally melts the last of the snow away...

Today, I raked most of the leaves out of my little flower garden... Last fall, I raked all the dead leaves from our Aspen trees over it to protect my plants from the cold. Good thing, too. 'Cuz we had some really cold days without enough snow. The dead leaves insulate the roots of my flowers from the extreme cold, which snow also does when there's enough.
Yup, I know that's weird. Not enough snow = dead garden.
Last summer I purchased some special flowers, some arctic poppies and some violas, that I'm really hoping come back this year. We used to have some amazing lilies, but a couple of winter's ago we lost them to a bad freeze before enough snow had fallen to insulate them. So now I'm raking our dead leaves up over my garden before the cold comes... And hoping it's enough...