BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 10:10 PM

About when is the best time to visit Maine and environs to witness those lovely meadows of lupine and other spring meadow flowers, etc?

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 04:42 PM

I found pussywillows today. yay!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: maeve
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 04:09 PM

As Becca said, it's snowing again. Our Spring at the moment consists of branches brought in for forcing, and rows of potted bulbs on the cellar shelves. I brought the first of them up this week, and now we have pots of snowdrops, yellow crocus, and delicate purple iris blooming and ready to sell.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: GUEST,Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 03:58 PM

The Bradford pears, one early pear in my back yard, and the tulip trees are blooming. The redbuds will be along any day now.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Becca72
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:24 PM

So much for Spring....it's feckin' snowing AGAIN!

Gnu, your wish is my command....here it comes :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:22 PM

Bee... you know... the ones that have that haunting cry... Keeee... Keeee... KeeeeRISTE IT'S COLD!!

I was just looking at me mum's flower bed next to the basement wall on the south side of the house. The tulips (and sommat else as yet unidentified) are breaking through. Some are up an inch. So, you Maineacs send that snow up here pronto, eh! I don't wanna have to chop down through the ice to get snow to cover them.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Metchosin
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:42 PM

If I could I would send you a warm westerly wind, gnu....which does not mean I am planning to fart in your general direction, henglish person.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Becca72
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 11:14 AM

Bee..LOL...that'll learn ya not to pay attention to the boys!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 11:00 AM

Here in Maine we had some flowers poking their heads up this week. But now they're getting buried under five inches of snow! Serves 'em right! There's still a day left of winter.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 10:23 AM

The daffodils are mostly finished, as is the Japanese flowering quince. The local redbuds are going full tilt; the ones that came from a nursery are a little slower to bloom. Mine is just beginning to open.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 09:01 AM

Gnu... Kiki birds?

At least the lake has stayed open, and I keep reminding myself that the very latest, according to my stack of old marked up calendars, that the peepers have started singing here was April 17, and the earliest was April 12. Not so long now.

But the cats are getting bored from wanting to be warm indoors too much, and finding new and interesting things to do. Tommy has learned that if he squashes the spacebar/alt/shift/ctrl down with his paw, things appear on the monitor. If you see really odd messages (odder than usual) under my nick, it means the little bugger has mastered typing. Snowball is more direct. If I am not-patting-him while using the computer, the act of him standing up off my lap, turning round, and setting his fluffy white arse down in the middle of the keyboard will certainly get my attention.
tyui
fghjk
cvbnm
is his most common message.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 05:59 AM

Awwww, Kat!

Metch. No deafening chorus of birds here. Just the chatter from their beaks. "Singing"? No, not even the Kiki Birds.

But, it is going to warm up today. So the Good Friday storm can start toninght... snow, to sleet, to freezing rain tomorrow and back to snow Friday.

One "early" Easter when I was a lad, snow started on Thursday eve and stopped on Sunday morn. I used snowshoes to get to the front of the house to shovel so we could see out the front room window. Hmmm, my snowshoes are out in the garage.

Our sidewalks are ice... uneven treacherous ice as much as a foot deep in spots... the city ran out of salt weeks ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Metchosin
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 01:06 AM

A pair of robins are nesting again in my woodshed and the chickadees were at the bird feeder for the first time since last fall. Don't know where they went. I thought they hung around all winter, but for some reason or other they weren't very interested in what I had to offer. Was up just before dawn the other morning and the chorus of birds was almost deafening. Despite the cool blustery wind today, Spring has definitely arrived here in the Pacific Northwest.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:54 AM

Mowing, already? I wish I had something that grew well enough to be mowed. Maybe this year, we'll be able to get the irrigation pump going and a bit more water, though I feel guilty about using too much water.

Bee and bw, thanks...he did it again today when he knocked one over. He tried to prop it back up by cupping it. I saved the day by showing him how to use a stick to help it stand tall. He thinks I am wonderful and know magical things.:-)

Bee, I shall be envious when you tell us of your beautiful autumn; I remember New England then..it was gorgeous.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:44 AM

We've got lots of March winds here, and more rain than we have had in a long time - though still below normal. The purple deadnettle, wild garlic and wild onions need mowing, but the prolonged drought has clearly injured or killed even the bermuda grass.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:27 PM

Oh, what a sweetie, kat!

My neighbour, originally from England, and I had ourselves a daytrip to the city for shopping today. The wind was wicked strong and cold, there's hard snow on the ground and no sign of green anywhere - unless you count spruce trees.

We were both moaning about the heartlessness of the English - her sisters and other rels telling her all about the daffodils and green grass, and me sympathising with tales of the outrageous Springy things being told of here (from other places, too, but we were blaming just the English today).

We're going to wait until October and tell you all how gorgeous our autumn is, what with the great swathes of red and orange and yellow, the sunny blue skies, the warm temperate afternoons...

That'll larn yez!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: black walnut
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 02:45 PM

Oh my!!! So very sweet, and thoughtful, and connected to the earth.... thanks for sharing that, Kat.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 01:19 PM

LOL {{{black walnut}}}

Our crocus started blooming this week and the daffs are half up, the iris have sent up tiny pointed shoots. I was pointing out the crocus to Morgan as he'd stepped on one. I explained to him how they come up every year and are too delicate to pick. He squatted down, cupped his hands around one and began to stroke it. I asked him what he was doing..."petting it, mama!" He then told it he was sorry for stepping on it and how pretty it was. Talk about melting my heart!

It's still a bit chilly to spend much time out, but there are promises of what's to come.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: black walnut
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:52 AM

We are beginning to see hope again as the snow very gradually melts. And my husband saw a robin this morning, but blimey who knows how it's finding any food....

I've been wandering around mumbling "Always winter, but never Christmas..."

~d

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 09:52 PM

Maggie, that'll do. I can't even see GREEN yet!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 08:12 PM

I've mowed the front yard twice already. I ran out of gas and had to filler-up (that set me back!) for the season and will mow the side yard this evening and the back tomorrow. If we get rains like last year this is a really great exercise routine. Front yard twice a week, back yard twice a week, staggering the days and it's four 45 minute workouts. Add another hour if I trim the entire thing.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Emma B
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 11:19 AM

For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Becca72
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 11:10 AM

The robins are here!! I saw about a half dozen of the red-breasted little buggers this morning. Of course, we are supposed to get more S#@% this weekend, too...

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 06:58 AM

The shelduck are back (Northants. UK). Saw my first bumble bee last evening.

Spring in the air.

Spring in the air yourself, Vicar !

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:12 AM

Oops!!! Sorry....

"They are telling us now to expect near HALF that much on Monday, ..."

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 06:51 PM

We got 20cm of snow last night, wet and fluffy, neighbour plowed me out, but I had to shovel our large deck off- heavy stuff. But the lake is still open and Mergansers are courting on it.

And yeah, gnu, more coming on the weekend...sigh...

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:46 PM

Full moon on Good Friday. Within ten days of that, we will know.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: skarpi
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:39 PM

its comin , but we have few more weeks until then

ATB skarpi

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:36 PM

0.8m? Oh my. My heart bleeds for you. With envy! They are telling us now to expect near that much on Monday, on top of a shitload more than 800mm.

It's beautiful here as I type. -6 and sunny. -18 tonight. Maple slurpup weather. If you can get around the streets that are full of ice... salt has run out.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:31 PM

Our woodpeckers have been busy for a couple of weeks now, hammering the woods across the street from me. Sounds wonderful!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: bobad
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:27 PM

Heard the song of the red winged blackbird for the first time today - a sure sign of spring but he will have to be intrepid as we have about 80 cm. of snow still on the ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 05:16 AM

Bee... if it happens in the sky...

Your husband is distracted by Cindy? Not I. Well, maybe a little. Especially on Fridays. On Fridays, she usually wears a sweater, often black, with a simple necklace of.... ahem! You say we might get some snow or whatever toward the weekend?

... Cindy Day knows why.

PS - That Peter Coade is a drunken bum!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 04:01 PM

First bumblebees were in December, I think.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 03:57 PM

Supposed to get up to 83 later this week. It goes from cold to hot fast here (this isn't hot). I miss having a long drawn out spring, but I'll take whatever I can get. Summer here is a killer.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 02:23 PM

Oh my, I hope so, gnu (bet those pics are pretty). I heard there might be another weekend bout of nasty weather, but the local weatherpersons are being quiet about it, even snow-lovin' Cindy. Odd, my husband never complains when she announces bad weather, but commonly asserts that the other forecasters are no doubt 'drunken bums!' when they do the same. Er, except for Maria, when she fills in.... hmmmm...

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 02:11 PM

Bee.... I stopped to take pics of some pines with a coat of ice and icicles dripping from the tips of their branches, dancing in the sun. Truly beautiful. While I was taking the pics, I noted ALL THE DUCKS whipping around above!! Oh, gosh I hope we are in for an early spring.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 10:36 AM

Five mergansers showed up yesterday - I've just got home, so now I'll be watching for the main flock to arrive. The chickadees have switched their song from 'chickadeedee' to sweet weather. I heard a White Throated Sparrow this morning trying to remember his song - it seems to take them a while to get up to 'maids, maids, maids, put the teakettle on'.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 11:21 PM

Oh--and Spinosad. Green Light makes one version. It's recommended by the Garrett (the Dirt Doctor).

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 11:19 PM

Janie, visit my pal The Dirt Doctor. I haven't been back to the site in ages, but he is always good for remedies for things like ants. And he's on several radio stations around the U.S. as well as streaming online on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours.

Funny, I just did a search in the forum. On a short discussion about fire ants, a woman said she has had great luck sprinkling nutrasweet (aspartame) on them. Hell, it'll kill us sooner rather than later, might as well take some ants with you!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 10:45 PM

With global warming, me thinks that March is the new April.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Janie
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 11:36 PM

Yep. it's spring. The ants are back. big ants. Little ants. Brown ants. Black ants. In the corners of the bathtub. marching along the baseboards. along the back of the kitchen sink.   Drop a breadcrumb from a sandwich in the countertop, miss wiping down one tiny little spot after supper, leave a dish in the sink, and they will soon be right on it.

Boric acid solution doesn't slow them down. Terramite slows them down some - but actually seems to draw more in from outside. Hundred year old wood house. Hollow walls. Lots of cracks and crevices that give access from the outside to tiny creatures. Being of the organic persuasion I have refused to consider the services of an exterminator for the 14 years we have lived here. But I think I'm about to surrender.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 12:42 PM

Oh frabjous day! Last night's rain, high wind and thick fog has melted the lake ice! It's still furiously windy, and all that's left of what was a solid sheet of ice yesterday is a floating skim of slushy crystals, driven into the downwind coves and diappearing fast. Now I can anticipate a visit from flocks of Common Mergansers. These handsome birds stop on our lake to feed and to court here every year on their way to nesting grounds further North, and they are seldom more than a day or two behind the thaw.

This has made me so happy that I've had my first genuinely creative idea since November. Spring Ahead!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Janie
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 07:42 PM

LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 06:26 PM

There is that side of things, Janie. Our Spring is late and long and wet and cold, and a frost can occasionally kill your flowery hopes in the middle of June, but when Spring does finally make it, everything wild bursts into leaf and blossom all at once, every tree and shrub is flaunting blankets of flowers and uncurling green leaves at the same time. And our Fall goes on into November, usually sunny and mild long after the bugs have all diasappeared.

Plus, I lived in Florida for a year, and while I don't know about your area, that tropical paradise sports chiggers, ticks, black widow spiders, enormous mosquitos, monster cockroaches, fire ants, poisonous snakes, alligators, tremendous lightning storms, tornados, sinkholes into which your house can fall. Now, the abundance of fresh ripe fruit and the scent of gardenias may almost make up for those shortcomings...

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Janie
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 03:54 PM

Come July and August, when I am sweltering in 95F at 9:00pm in an unairconditioned house, with a yard full of dead things from two years of drought, taking 3 minute showers due to massive regional water shortages, I will revisit the pros and cons of living in the southern USA, and wonder why I get no sympathy from you guys.

Can I take back the link to the tulip?

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 03:34 PM

It rained last night, it rained this morning, and it froze on the trees. I went to the market, and on the way home, the sun came out. I got out of the care, and the world was LOUD! Dogs were barking birds were chirping or cawing, depending on their proclivities, and nearly drowning it all out was the sound of ice melting and falling or dripping on everything below. It's gorgeous out there!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 03:26 PM

Janie... whimper..

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: black walnut
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 03:23 PM

Spring? Ha. I'm going out to shovel again....

~b.w.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Janie
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 02:57 PM

I don't mean to be cruel, but the first of the 'Red Riding Hood" greigii tulips in my garden has been blooming since Monday.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 11:27 AM

'Sprinter'! Right you are, gnu, and it's a completely miserable and typical early March day here, and my poor husband was supposed to be working outside somewhere in the NB wilderness today. Hopefully they shut the job down until it's over.