First buttercup of 2021 found

ROSALIA ­- Emmy Widman found the first buttercup of the year Feb. 1.

It was on a hill north of Rosalia, across Babb Road from where the Malden and Pine City fire began last September. The base of the plant had been there since the first week of January.

The mother and her three children were looking. They are perennial winners of the longtime Gazette contest for who can find the first sprouted buttercup flower in the county.

"When you get three days above 40 degrees, you really start looking," said Widman. "On a south facing slope, they pop up in the same spot every year."

On a walk on a sunny...