JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER

SNOW-COVERED SPRING HEATHER

Easter Sunday, 9:30 AM.  28 degrees F, wind calm to light, and variable.  The sky has some scattered clouds, the humidity is 72% and the barometer is more or less steady, standing now at 30.20".  It is a beautiful Easter Morning, full of hope and promise.
   A pretty sight greets us this Easter Morning on the corner of Eighth Street and Washington Avenue.  I will identify the low-growing, purple-flowered plant as a spring heather, Calluna vagarus, in the family Eriaceae.
    In any case it is a variety of heather or heath, common to European moors and heaths.  It is along the roadside, and is part of  Martha's  Fantastic Garden, which I have written about of before and which you may read about by using the Almanac's search engine.  When Martha arrives home from her winter sojourn in Florida I will get the plant's complete name and history, and say more about it.
   In the meantime, it greets observant drivers and walkers with its colorful presence, and just in time for Easter.