This is more or less an annual post for me now–the only thing that changes is the photo of the oak leaves (yes, that’s what you are looking at–tiny oak leaves, and off to the bottom of the stem, unopened tiny unopened tiny oak flowers) and the date of my post.
So what the heck is this about? There’s an old farmer’s saying that when the oak leaves are the size of little mouse’s ears, you have had your last frost.
It’s a type of phenology, which I think all gardeners do in some form or other, even if we don’t do so formally. We have a favorite tree that we look to before we know that it’s safe to plant tender veggies. Or we know that when the lilacs bloom, we can put geraniums out–pick your tree or shrub for your own climate.
So I have my oak leaves bigger than little mouse’s ears–and this year, they are on my oak tree earlier than they have ever been.
Then again, record breaking 90 degree days in April will do that. I just hope that the trees–and the rest of nature–haven’t been tricked somehow. But I am not ready anyway to put anything tender out. I remember the May snows we can have. Sigh.
Gardendaze 
Oh I do hope we’ve seen the last of frost for the season. I’m still holding out another week, though, before planting out my sunflowers and pumpkins, and hoping they’ll be safe (with some fleece available to cover, if necessary!).
I just got yet another example of the “be careful what you wish for ” in the weather department. It’s been terribly dry here and they were predicting a wet day today with at least a 1-2″ rainfall. I was hopeful but skeptical because I have seen a lot of those predictions fail to materialize. Well, not this time. We have gotten over 3″ and it’s still raining! At least we needed the rain! And at least it’s not snow!