A few days ago I spotted some violet buds that looked like they would open soon. I kept my eye on them, because I thought they would be the first violets of the year. Meanwhile, some downy violets opened in the front yard without anyone noticing. Obscured by grass and facing rocks, they were deucedly hard to spot. Darnit. I don’t know which one of those stealthy little blooms was first or exactly when it opened.
The violet in the picture below photographed slightly less fuzzy than the other, so I’m going to call it the First. I’m going to say it opened today, and no one can prove otherwise. So, here it is–the first violet of 2021!