During my almost daily walks or runs in the Merced River Canyon near Yosemite, I enjoying witnessing the changing seasons and especially look forward to the annual wildflower bloom. Usually I have to wait until March, although sometimes if I am really lucky some blossoms appear by late February. Yet last week the fiery orange faces of the California poppy appeared on the landscape, and on my walk this afternoon I noticed a few other wildflower species, not to be outdone by the poppies, making an early appearance as well. I observed a solitary hummingbird resting on a burnt out tree and thought he might be pondering the same thing--the strangeness of this year without a winter.