BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:38 PM

We've had a couple of fires in the fireplace, just for fun. The cats like them. There is snow on the mountain - which is 3 miles east and 5000 feet (1500 meters) higher, and that is a good place for it. I think I'll go take a good book and a cuppa coffee out in the back yard and sit in the sun. Hey, gnu...there are a lot of places for sale around here. Wood stoves? Snow blowers? You can keep them! I think I'm the only person on the block who owns a snow shovel, and I've used it twice in 3 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:51 PM

From the weather described by many in this thread I can see why you haven't discovered the garden thread that has already been running for a couple of weeks. Go back to sleep and check back in about six weeks. Or 12, if you live near MMario. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 07:48 PM

Those of you digging firewood out of ice and snow, give a thought next season to piling it in beehive shape or haystack shape piles. I've failed to find a picture of it, so I'll try to describe. You lay a circle of firewood, maybe two metres across, more or less, depending on how much wood you have. Place another layer on top of that, neatly like brickwork. Once you've got a few rows laid that way, fire a bunch of wood in the centre. You can be neat about this or just throw it in. Now build up your circle wall some more, gradually easing the rows in to an igloo or beehive shape. Keep filling the centre until you finish the pile.

I've found, for wood that must be left outdoors, that shape of pile is easiest to deal with. You can put a little tarp on top if you like. When the pile gets snowed in and iced up, it's still fairly easy to break into the centre and get some nice dry wood.

Plus, they look really cool. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 08:47 PM

Snowdrops are out on this part of the coast of BC. I had a couple of 'mums blooming in January too, but they did turn brown in the last freeze, three of weeks ago. I was planning on doing some pruning this weekend, but I think I'm a bit too late again this year. Should have done it at the beginning of January.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 09:03 PM

Metch.... have you been told yet today???!!!

Art... ditto my last... ditto, ditto, ditto, darnit!!!! Avec d'Amos dat guy la!!

Bee.... kewl!!!!!

Oh... we had winter, spring, and winter today.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 12:42 AM

Bee, does THIS look like what you mean? I found it and several others over at THIS SPOT. Here're a couple more: clickety...OR, maybe it looks more like THIS ONE?

There are several more pix posted at that site. Pretty neat info, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 10:17 AM

zero, zero, zero

boring!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 11:04 AM

I don't mind boring. Better than in the -20'sC tonight and tomorrow night and up to +6C Monday. It's a beautiful suuny day here. -16C and -26WC (Wind Chill) right now.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 02:08 PM

Told what gnu?

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 02:11 PM

Well, well, well. I just took pics of a robin (and Cedar Waxwings) in my mum's apple tree. I imagine that robin must be upset at the travel agent!!!

Mum phoned me all excited and wanted me to rush right over because she wanted me to see that robin with my own eyes. There were reports on the radio that a robin had been seen in town... but nobody believed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 02:25 PM

I'm glad you've had a robin, gnu. You deserve one. No sign of Turdus migratorius here yet, but the varied thrushes have been busy stirring up the leaf litter.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 03:22 PM

Kat, the ones described as pics from a Finnish museum are what I do. I actually have seen them around Nova Scotia here and there, thought they looked neat, and learned how to build them at Ross Farm Museum in Nova Scotia. Mine tend to look quite iglooish, likely 'cause I'm not seven feet tall, and don't build them higher than I can easily reach the top of. From the notes in that forum, looks like they are called beehive woodpiles.

I've also seen them built with slabwood (mill ends, great cheap source of firewood and kindling)leaned on end, kind of shingle style.

The other wood pile style with the pole in the middle no doubt works great, but looks labour intensive, whereas the beehive is less work than stacking your wood in conventional rows, since you needn't stack the 'filling', just toss it in loose. I've actually seen one place where the woodpiler had built 'windows' into the sides of his beehive piles nearest the house, big enough to reach in and get quite a lot of wood out without disturbing the integrity of the pile.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 04:07 PM

Metch... why, told that you should have pruned earlier, of course. Wouldn't want to disturb any nesting robins or such, eh?

BTW, the Robin was great fun to watch. He was voraciously attacking one particular apple. When the Cedar Waxwings would get close, he was equally viscious with them. Poor little guy. I wish I had some worms to feed him. Of course, pickin worms might be a tad difficult at -13 with over 4 to 6 feet of snow and ice on the lawn.

BTW, BTW, I looked up Cedar Waxwings in four of my bird books and they are not here either. Maybe they read about the global warming and decided to check it out?

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 05:37 PM

Gnu, dunno what birdbook you're using, but Cedar Waxwings have been here - Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, since me Mum was a kidlet, at least.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Riginslinger
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 10:54 PM

I hear all of this talk about early spring, and then turn on the radio and hear about "global warming." At that point I wonder if I should be enjoying the weather, or nervous about he future.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 11:06 PM

..both

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Greg B
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 11:18 PM

In Pennsylvania, we've been feeling smug because every serious
snow storm has diverted around us and clobbered either New England
or the South. Rained like hell. Mud. But cold has been accompanied
by clear skies.

We've had a couple of close run ones--- one in January which dumped
a bunch of icy slush on us. And one last week which turned the
roads into a mass of miniature ball-bearings. (I drove all the
way home in 4WD on ice tires, avoiding populated roads and
kind of enjoyed it, truth to be told, especially after I heard
about colleagues going 4MPH on the highways and I was going 40).

And some sort of ice-storm thing last December--- too far back
to remember.

Haven't got to run the snow-plow on the tractor since 2006-2007.

That's kind of a disappointment, because I like putting on my
'Carharts' and plowing out the road with a 50-year-old machine.

I figger with all this smugness, it has to end soon. Some Alberta
Clipper or Nor'easter is going to come ripping down on us in March
or early April and dump four feet in as many hours.

I've got the blade on the tractor, but haven't put the 85# each
side chains on, and the differential brakes are none too great,
so I'll have my proverbials down.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so supposedly it could happen.

Still, I found myself today planning our first kayak trip of the
season down the Neshaminy and realistically hoping for a 60F day
(we've had several in the last few weeks) to allow it to happen.
I was looking at the boats today, up on the sawhorses and gathering
dust in the shadows of the barn, and feeling that itch in the
pectorals.

If it's a sign of Spring, the crop of pot-holes is bumper this
year. Thank goodness for big 16-inch (ID) 32-inch (OD) tires on
steel rims. BOING! Oh, was that a New Beetle down there?

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 07:25 AM

Yes, Bee. But, my books say they are not here during the winter.

-23C and -33WC (Windchill) this AM. Spring again tomorrow with +6C and a heavy rain warning issued.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 10:00 AM

The sun is shining, the birds are singing. We have a small flock of sandhill cranes down by the river that didn't commute any further south than here. No flowers yet, though. Early sign of Spring: "Art, how about going out and turning over the garden".

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Rumncoke
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 10:57 AM

Hello from the south coast of England.

What is this 'snow' of which you speak?

Are there truly outdoor temperatures of less than zero degrees Centigrade? I thought they were simply urban legends from the early days of freezer owning.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 11:12 AM

I friend of mine, who lives in Sweden, says that, where she lives, winter starts a month later, and spring comes a month earlier, compared to when she was a child. Big problems are coming, and undoubledly - sooner than later - they'll hit us very hard !

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 12:06 PM

Here in Maine we had the snowiest December since 1970. To put that into my perspective, I was born in 1972!

I'm glad we're halfway through February...there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is a ways away!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: open mike
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 12:19 PM

In the California foothills, we still have patches of snow in the shady places. There are ladybugs here. They hibernate beneath the ground, and in clubs of vegetation. When the sun is warm they come out and fly around. It is a beautiful sight to see them crawling over fenceposts,
bushes and all. Watch your step! Fruit trees are in need of pruning, and so are roses. There was a gang of robins on the meadow yesterday. Or is it a herd? The star magnolia is blooming and the flower quince is pushing out a few bright buds. A humming bird is calling form the highest branch. I thought they were supposed to migrate away from here.
The bats are suppoed to, too. Now is when i should put up a bat house and close any openings in the rafters and eaves by my loft bedroom so they might nest a bit farther away from my "belfry".

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: CarolC
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 12:21 PM

I was having some difficulty figuring out what a 'sign of spring' was here in coastal (southeastern) North Carolina. We had crickets and some mosquitos at various times throughout the winter. We had robins at various times throughout as well. I found an anole climbing up our screen door back in January. We've had dandelions for a while now. Just today, though, I think I got the first sign of spring. The first ant of the season inside the house.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 12:43 PM

Remember, all you UKers, that us USians are talking degrees Fahrenheit, not Centigrade/Celsius.

So zero is 32 degrees below freezing.

Actually F is more accurate than C -- more clicks between freezing and boiling temperatures. (More nuances to being uncomfortably cold or uncomfortably hot -- right?)

All I know for sure is we've got a LOT of ice and it's been #%@& cold -- and it's warming up and tomorrow is spozed to be around 50-ish F. Which means the driveway will be MUD not ICE and that, believe it or not, is a heck of a lot worse.

Especially since the wood guy didn't come yesterday as promised.

Sigh. Just part of Life's rich pageant...

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 01:33 PM

Winters I remember from childhood in Cape Breton:

1955: Snowdrifts to the tops of the first floor windows. Mature cherry trees buried over their tops in drifts.

1960: Christmas Eve blizzard. Waiting for Dad to come home and thinking he might not make it. He walked five miles from where he left the milk truck stuck in a drift, passing a dozen homes that would have gladly taken him in on the way (I loved my dad). In June ther was still corn snow in the woods.

1961: Jumping off the garage roof at the Manse into the snowdrifts. Falling through thin ice on the ditch, chest deep in slush - never been so cold in my life.

1963: Snow to our thighs in the open fields. Nearby old gravel pit drifted in fabulous shapes, house sized dunes and chizell edged ledges over the edges. Almost lost my ten year old brother; got stuck upside down in a tunnel he was digging over the pit edge.

1965: Jumping off the tops of spruce trees back of the hill to land in powdery explosions in the snow. Brother building a snow launch ramp for the toboggan so hig it had me scared. When he went off the end of it he didn't touch down until he hit the woods proper. Came staggering out looking more like a snowman than a twelve year old kid.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Peace
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 01:40 PM

I lived up north for a few years and many people in that settlement did not have indoor plumbing. They use what were called 'honey pots'. (Twenty gallon drum with a plastic garbage bag as a liner. When ya had to go, ya went. A cover (lid) was put on the pot and every now and then (usually daily) folks would tie up the bag and put it outside to freeze. It froze.) The clement weather--heralding Spring--arrived and the contents of the bags thawed. Some bags had been opened by dogs and others had been run over by snowmobiles. The odors vented to the air. Voila. Yep. Voila . . . .

That and being able to wear a t-shirt outdoors. When it finally warms to 0 degrees after a winter of dark and cold--well, it was just like a day at the beach.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 04:03 PM

In late January to mid February we here in Juneau, Alaska, had a lot of snow, as well as cold weather. The official word is that we are right at average for the year.

At the moment it's drizzling rain into the packed snow berms, with an occasional snow shower. Just enough to make crackling snow for easy walking.

Of course, we don't have any flowers showing yet but I can imagine the earth stirring beneath the snow.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bert
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 04:18 PM

Spring arrived (officially for me) in Colorado Springs this weekend. I just saw the first yard sale.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 06:28 PM

Bert! Hehehehe.... that's the clincher!

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 07:10 PM

Let's see, signs of Spring --

Sap buckets on the maple trees (early, may have more snow, etc.)
Bare knees on joggers
First yardsale
First snowy egret in the saltmarsh
Robins (of course, but I've seen 'em right after a multi-foot snow storm, too)
Peepers!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 07:16 PM

Oh yes, the peepers! Earliest I've heard them here (Eastern NS) is April 10th.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 08:22 PM

Well, it's 40 below in the winter
And it's 20 below in the fall
And it gets up to zero in springtime
And we don't get no summer at all....

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Peace
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 08:54 PM

Dick, what is that from? It appeared in the Toronto "Globe and Mail" in 1979 (according to a site I saw).

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 09:10 PM

Blueberry leaves in little clumps.
Daffodils getting plump before blooming.
Pink flowers on the thorny quince.
Cardinals.
Bluebirds.
Singing mockingbird.
Traffic picking up at the seed'n'feed.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 10:34 PM

Smelt fishermen float out the harbour in small bunches as the ice breaks up ( oh, yes, it happens - those boys are deicated).

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 11:54 PM

One sign of Spring that I remember from when I lived in Wisconsin...the ice fishing huts sinking in the lake because the fishermen misjudge the thaw and don't get them off fast enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 12:19 AM

Bruce-
It's in Digitrad--"Forty Below". Collected by Rika Reubesaat. Fine song for not-so-fine weather.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Fortunato
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:33 AM

We're in Silver Spring today and it's 70 degrees. Blue sky, big white clouds.

KEEP IT COMING, WEATHER GODS, WE LIKE IT.

chance

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemispher
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 03:02 PM

Mantana conversation:
"If summer comes on a weekend this year, can we go on a picnic, Mommy?"

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: gnu
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:18 PM

Hahahaha... that's a good one, Dick!

+8C and rainin like a banshee here in springLIKE southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. (I like to throw in my area every now and then as a matter of courtesey).

You could skate on the ice on the streets if it wasn't for the ruts and the patches of bare pave. Maybe that's why Canucks are pretty good hockey players... we learn to skate around the defense, the ruts, the puddles, the mud and the blood and the beer.

Beer? Go Wings Go.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:47 PM

Today it was 64 and the forest spring peeper toads in the Rock Creek swampy areas are singing their symphonic song so loud we have to talk over them in loud voices.


yikes I think they are 30 days early. So are the woodpeckers and Blue Jays.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 09:20 PM

It was 45 F today in Maine but we spent the whole day trying to clean out the furnace and the oil line from the bad load of oil (with water) that had been delivered last week. You know, oil and water don't mix very well, the furnace burns at a lower temperature creating great clouds of soot, clogging up everything. I bet whoever added the water to the oil got the full price for a load of oil. Got to admire ye olde capitalist system!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 04:43 AM

Minus 5 Centigrade coming out to work this morning (Northamptonshire, UK).

My beloved and I damn near went A over T just on the front path.

The de-icer froze as she sprayed it on the front windscreen.

There is a small lake nearby, and it is comical to watch the ducks skidding on the ice !

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 06:29 AM

Yup, looking out of the office window in Shipley, W Yorks and there's freezing fog - oh, and it's starting to snow. Mind you, it does that in July up here.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Jim Martin
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 01:35 PM

The frogs in my pond spawned 10 days earlier this year (Than last year).

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Jim Martin
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 01:36 PM

That's W.Clare, Eire.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 10:40 PM

Hey Charley, did someone sabotage the cheap Chavez oil? OR did the tanker leak.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Janie
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 12:14 AM

in the yards and sheltered places in the fields and along roadways, common speedwell has joined the henbit in blooming. In the garden, more daffodils and a few brave wood hyacynthes. The pulmunaria has leafed out and in the forests on the hillsides, the bare trees are starting to show the red shadow of bud swell.

We will have some ice storms, maybe some snow, and some cold wintry blasts, but the earth is definitely beginning to awake from winter sleep in the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Subject: RE: BS: Early Signs of Spring - northern hemisphere
From: Bee
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 12:32 AM

The scary windy rainstorm last night melted all the snow, and the lake appears to be a giant floating icecube, as the shoe ice has all melted in the runoff.

And today was lovely, sunny, and plus seven.

'Course, it'll be cold the rest of the week.

Janie, Common Speedwell is one of the banes of my gardening - grows everywhere, endlessly, along with Knapweed and healall, but I'd love to see those little blue flowers right now.