BS: Spring is here

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Mar 16 - 10:02 AM

Sex everywhere you look
Strewn on the ground and
covering windshields
Spring is here
and its messy.

The forest is now opaque with buds and leaves of fairy green

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Mar 16 - 05:43 PM

Forecast warms of a storm system which will bring high winds, rain, and thunder. So much for going out like a lamb.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Mar 16 - 08:19 PM

Snow on the ground yesterday morning and this morning, but it melted off without problem both times. Now the weather is supposed to clear up and the first sign of Spring will be Friday or Saturday: the yard gets cleaned up from it winter debris.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Janie
Date: 30 Mar 16 - 10:16 PM

Confess I can not abide more than the slightest hint of the scent of hyacinths. When my sister died many years ago, in the midst of winter, some one sent a lovely planter of forced hyacinths that flooded the house with their aroma for days. They are quite overpowering indoors. Carries me back to too much sadness.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Ed T
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 09:16 AM

End of winter 

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Llanfair
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 01:30 PM

Frost this morning in Wales, warm and sunny all day, the weeping willow is a haze of light green, well grown lambs in the valley fields, younger ones up here in the hills.
Wild garlic, mint, rhubarb, lemon balm and quince all early and growing well. Fruit trees showing green buds, as is the giant sycamore.
Hopefully now the solar panels can start earning their keep.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 05:25 PM

At any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can't stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can't. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.
-- George Orwell, "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (April 1946)

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 06:26 PM

Mrs Steve and I went to the RHS garden at Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon, this afternoon. Blue sky and mild weather made for a great day out. They have some magnificent trees there, the best ones being Himalayan birch with its paper white bark, English oak and tulip tree. We were a bit early for the magnolias and camellias. They have great swathes of narcissi growing in grass. My favourites are Narcissus bulbocodium, the hoop-petticoat (which we saw growing wild in the Picos de Europa in Spain years ago) and N. cyclamineus, cyclamen-flowered daffodil. There's a beautiful little lake there with a backdrop that changes dramatically through the seasons. So much promise.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 07:51 PM

We have daffodils flowering. And yes indeed, Spring is here! This morning I saw a robin frozen to the ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: gnu
Date: 01 Apr 16 - 06:54 AM

16C today!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Apr 16 - 04:20 PM

Weekend forecast still going on about snow. Enough already.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 03:19 PM

Snow today, mud tomorrow?

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 09:35 PM

Made it to the supermarket & back; fell only once. Could be worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 10:09 PM

Spring is here? Where? I thought I'd found it, but it fled.

Ouch, Joe F.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Apr 16 - 01:12 PM

Spring is around here somewhere. Rain instead of the snow that fell a few days ago, and the snow is melting. The nights have been very cold though for April.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Apr 16 - 02:27 PM

Blue sky AND black clouds at the same time.
Direct sunshine AND pouring rain at the same time.
I looked for a rainbow. But the sun seemed to be straight overhead and rainbows are hard to see when the sun is not at an angle.
Heck of a wind blowing as well.

The trees don't quite know when to do what they know how to do. They're sort of standing around, bare, and expectant....like "Mother, may I?"

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 08 Apr 16 - 08:36 PM

A possibility of snow tomorrow. Noooo! However, it may pass south of me. If you are south of me, I hope it passes south of you, too! (I figure "south of me" covers a lot of territory--say, all the way down to the equator. Although I may make an exception for those states to which some RIers have fled to avoid snow.)

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Apr 16 - 08:53 PM

The sun's always "at an angle" unless you live somewhere between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn where the sun will be overhead on just one or two days of the year. At present, the sun will be overhead a few degrees north of the equator, in which case your trees would be in the condition you describe only if you lived many thousands of feet up a mountain, somewhere at the bottom end of Central America or thereabouts. Alternatively, you could be looking in the wrong direction for your rainbows.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Apr 16 - 11:49 AM

No rainbows today, only rain. The wind has quieted down at least, so the weather isn't totally changing every thirty minutes, like last week.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Stringsinger
Date: 12 Apr 16 - 01:27 PM

Spring has sprung, the pollen has ris,
Wonder where the birdies is?

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Apr 16 - 03:15 PM

You watch the birdies. I'm watching the trees.

Bare trees, they are. For the first time, buds are visibly swelling. The trees are still behaving like, Mother, may I? Really? You sure about that?

The tulips, I will allow, have got their green leaves pushed out and flopping over in the wind.

And that clear blue sky overhead. Maybe, just maybe, there will be no more Ess-word for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 16 - 01:44 PM

Warm weather for the Patriot's Day weekend and marathon, even warmer than seasonal by the day of the race. The poor runners, in truth, will find it positively hot in the sunshine.

The trees will go for it now. I just looked at the flowering trees in the public library parking lot, and their buds are ready to POP. No turning back now.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Apr 16 - 02:48 PM

Satin flowers peeping from the hedge banks like little stars as you swoosh by in your car. Two weeks to the annual bluebell walk. Real bluebells, not those Spanish interlopers.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 02:43 PM

Still waiting for the trees to bud. Stringsinger, the birdies are about. Geese flying in formation. And at dawn, the songbirds sound different. I never did study songbird calls, but sounds like some of the seasonal birds are back. And then there are the nonbird calls -- those peeping frogs have been going gangbusters in the marshlands.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 08:49 PM

Wheatears are back but not in numbers. Chiffchaffs and sand martins. No sedge warblers as yet, the tone-deaf of the bird world. Confounded bloody blue tit going like the clappers outside the window way too early this morning, started up at sparrow's-fart, as we say. grr. Horrid Spanish bluebells everywhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Janie
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 10:54 PM

Redbuds setting their edible pods. Grab 'em quick while small or they will be too tough. Later azaleas in full bloom, and dogwoods just starting to fade. Fringe trees and lilacs starting to offer up their heady scents on the breeze. Birds courting and nesting all over the place. Roadside and garden spring flowers profuse and lovely. Roses will be blooming soon.

Andlotsandlotsoftreepollenpollen. Did I mention tree pollen?

Allergies the worst they have been in several years. I rarely use over-the-counter stuff - usually just tough it out. But this year better living through chemistry is probably keeping me out of the hospital and off of antibiotics. This year, the generic equivalents of Zyrtec and Mucinex DM are my friends.

Prefer the pollen to all the April Snow in the Rockies and the flooding in Houston. Guess it always pays to count blessings, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 07:08 AM

If I go outside for five minutes with any bit of me unprotected, I get bitten to pieces by mozzies or their detestable allies. For some reason it's very bad this year. I've tried everything but only 50% deet works for me. Those so-called non-drowsy antihistamine tablets work well but leave me in zombie mode. I'd much rather have the summer cleggies. They drain me of my lifeblood but their bites don't make me itch, oddly.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 01:36 PM

DANDELIONS!!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 06:00 PM

Yes, dandelions! I just picked three of them & put them in my window.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 06:23 PM

It's traditional to make dandelion wine on St George's Day, April 23, but I've always found that dandelion flowers are far more abundant a week or two later. Remove the hollow stalks but don't bother taking off the green bracts under the yellow bits. Dandelion wine is one of the best home wines, along with rose hip.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 06:49 PM

Steve, did you ever find out what bit you in March, and required you to get extra sleep? And is the critter still out there biting?

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 16 - 09:10 PM

I didn't, though Will's suggestion was valid. My being unwell the next day could well have been a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc, though, if it was, it was an odd coincidence. The weather was dry and windy today with low humidity so I braved the outside world with no deet protection. I did get two bites close to sunset which I think were by mozzies. On the whole you're never going to catch anything to worry about from insects in the UK. We went to Italy twice in 2013, almost to the same area (Amalfi coast and Bay of Naples),just three weeks apart, and I got no bites in September but was horribly afflicted three weeks later. I'm pretty sure it was mozzies. I still have a huge scar on one leg. Oddly, I can be bitten to pieces by horseflies in summer with no ill effects.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 04:05 PM

First day of spring shortly. Looking back at this thread is nostalgic in more ways than one. It was just before GUESTs were banned in the BS threads.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 04:55 PM

Oilseed rape fields are just beginning to come into flower here in Norfolk. The pollen absolutely slays my poor husband, and his eyes and nose are streaming already. It looks as if all the farmers round about have chose rape this year for their main crop. Oh Lord!

Talking of clegs, Norfolk has a rather unusual type that is browner than the normal ones, and their bites make huge lumps the size of ping pong balls come up on my legs. They weep for days, itch like mad and go crusty. I avoid visiting water gardens and anywhere marshy. A colleague years ago was very badly bitten all over her legs, and she was wearing stout denim jeans. It didn't stop the little monsters from getting through the thick material. She had to go to the doctor, as the bites all went septic.
I saw two red admiral butterflies this morning on my tubs of hyacinths. And the field up the road has some darling little lambs.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Elmore
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 08:35 PM

Here in the mountains of North Georgia the first couple of weeks in March were colder than the rest of winter. Things are improving though.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Amos
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 11:07 PM

Our blue and white phlox are burgeoning. It is something. The redbud tree was blooming but went sullen when the freeze hit; I expect it will come out of it. The rolling hills of North Carolina are just raring to bust out with green and color, given half a chance.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 05:03 AM

You're right Steve, nothing here in UK that bites one will do much harm to health (except perhaps an adder!) In W Africa, I've been bitten to death by mosquitoes, in spite of Deet and anything else I could get my hands on. I was told they particularly love white skin, although scientific experiments have shown they're actually drawn to black surfaces, and respond to carbon dioxide exhaled by warm-blooded mammals. Thank the Lord I took Malarone (anti-malarials) unlike some stupid idiots who don't bother, and risk their lives out in the Tropics.
My feet are badly scarred from numerous African mozzy bites. I always wear long skirts out there, but one's feet are exposed in sandals and they have a feast, especially in the evenings.

Speaking of adders, we have quite a few of those in Norfolk, in heathland habitats, and at this time of year they lie rather comatose on paths through the bracken. People tread on them without noticing their presence. But they aren't deadly, and very few bites are reported. No deaths for twenty years. I have no fear of snakes, quite like them actually.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: gnu
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 06:16 AM

Eight more minutes!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 07:01 AM

Heard a chiffchaff yesterday but I think it was an overwintering one (quite a new phenomenon), not a migrant as they don't usually arrive until well into April. The great tits are going nuts. We've had hardly any sun for over a week. Damp and rotten and it's getting colder. There are bumble bees around and the scurvy grass is out.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 07:29 AM

"Darling lambs"

I looked up the interpretation of Sonnet 18 the other day, the one in which Shakespeare refers to the darling buds of May. Interestingly, the word "darling" probably refers to the changing of the flower buds from green to coloured as they open. Despite the affectionate context in which we use the word today, when applied to people it may originally have meant a pubescent girl blooming into young womanhood. I like that. I'll remember that the next time the checkout girl at the supermarket calls me "darling!"

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 07:31 AM

I worry about the bees and also the butterflies; it's far too cold and wet for them to find anything to eat in the way of nectar or pollen.

Those great tits are a blasted scourge (I know I'm in the RSPB but really!) on and on and on and on.... and we have a rather raucous blackbird who sits on our roof warbling (we use the term loosely) at dawn. More like a corncrake. Perhaps he has a sore throat. Our neighbours' one has a lovely fluid song.

Soon I suppose the Mad Swans will start walking down our village street right in the middle of the road with their poor cygnets struggling along behind exhausted. Why oh why do they do this every year? I've been in tears trying to slow down huge lorries in the hope of preventing a horrific squashing.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 07:41 AM

Ah Steve, here in Norfolk the word is used instead of 'delightful' or even just 'nice'. One could say, "I met that darling old bwoy in the Pussed Orfice this mornin'." Or, "That darling little owd bairby hev grown since oi larst saw 'im!"

However, I hope the checkout lady was being totally sincere :)

By the way, my rather more savvy friend has informed me that one shouldn't say 'dear' any more, as it's patronising. I often say, "Thank you dear" in shops etc. But apparently it's now the height of dreadful, so I suppose I must stop.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 08:36 AM

That could have been Cameron's fault with his "Calm down, dear!"

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 09:34 AM

Or Michael Winner.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Janie
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 11:36 AM

After a ridiculously mild winter that was like a very long, early spring, March has thus far been very wintery. Fooled plants that respond more to temps than to day length are thoroughly ruined for this year.

The birds don't care though - Rampant courting everywhere I look. And mosquitos - did I mention mosquitos?

Must be Spring!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 05:35 PM

T. S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month.

Judging from the forecast, though, cruel weather could not wait for April.
A day or two, including today, will be well above freezing, with sunny skies, and much melting.
Then, later this week, temperatures will plunge: it will be at or sub-freezing DAY AND NIGHT with a bitter winter wind adding that wind-chill factor. That for several days straight.
Then the temperature wobbles upward somewhat for the weekend maybe.

Not sure how March is going to "go out" but right now the extremes are being worked in a pendulum swing.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Mar 17 - 09:28 AM

It is a silent Spring here. All the hatched singing/chirping frogs were all killed off due to the mild February followed by a hard freeze.
Perhaps they may return with time.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Janie
Date: 21 Mar 17 - 12:59 PM

Not to worry about the frogs, Donuel. They just go back into hybernation.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Mar 17 - 04:34 PM

A minute ago I could not recall the name spring peepers.
I hate when that happens.

on another note I am thinking Jupiter has an oblong liquid hydrogen metal core that creates internal gravitational turbulence http://www.space.com/34457-jupiter-stripes-go-deep-juno-probe-reveals.html

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 12:29 AM

100. Beautiful, spring day today, cold tomorrow.