It’s spring when the land turns purple

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Certain events happen every year to let me know spring has arrived: waking up to hear geese honking overhead or the first robin sighting.

But I really know the hopeful season is upon us when The Western Producer receives its first crocus photo.

The photos we run in the paper are either taken by our reporters, supplied by story sources or contributed by freelancers and readers.

It’s the latter category that tends to feed us our seasonal diet of crocus photos, and it can be an abundance of riches. Once those flowers start poking out of the ground, the photos begin arriving fast and furious.

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It’s the first one that let’s me know spring is definitely here, and I always look forward to its arrival.

If I was more organized I would keep a list of when the first crocus photo arrives in my email In box from year to year, but alas, such an archive has not been kept and my memory is definitely not robust enough to remember back that far.

However, I do know that the first crocus photo emailed to The Western Producer this year was sent by freelance photographer Mike Sturk of Alberta on April 2. We published it on page 55 of the April 14 paper.

And usually that’s the end of it — not the arrival of crocus photos, but the publication of said photos. I have an unwritten rule that says only one crocus photo a year goes in the paper.

But rules are meant to be broken, as they say, and this year I made an exception when Mickey Watkins, a regular contributor of photos to the Producer, sent one of white crocuses growing among the standard purple variety. I was so taken by these rare beauties that I broke my rule and ran — gasp — a second crocus photo in one year. It can be found on page 47 of the April 28 paper.

I have coffee every Saturday morning with a group of friends, and crocuses certainly become an integral part of the conversation this time of year — has anyone seen one yet and where are the best places to find them?

That pretty little wild flower certainly does capture the prairie imagination.