BS: SPRING!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 May 14 - 03:25 AM

Hell's Bells and Basins of Cold Sick! We've just had a FROST warning for tomorrow night!! The Pigs!! All our hanging baskets, tubs etc filled with tender (and expensive) plants are outside. The apple and pear blossom is at full throttle; bees (big fat bumbles and honey variety) are out too, attracted by the oilseed rape flowers. Birds are all busy with their nestlings, and now they DARE to send us blasted frost. It'll kill everything! I can't ask my long-suffering husband to hump all those heavy pots and tubs back into the greenhouse. He'd either kill me and bury me under the veggie plot, or head back to Africa in a dudgeon.
Sorry Patsy to hear you've had some bereavements and worries recently.
Hope your mum improves. Some more summery weather might help her!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 11:05 PM

My next door neighbor in southern Quebec is working on a home carpentry project and he'd like to know what forty cubits is in metric.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Janie
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 10:31 PM

Ouch, Bill! Had the hatches battened down here, but it all went east of us. Up the coast to you, eh?

JHW, when I read the descriptions that you and others post in the UK, I yearn to see. I think if I ever was able to travel across the pond, especially in spring, it would be both very familiar and also very different from what I know or have seen.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: JHW
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 02:47 PM

A most unusual concentrated Spring Flora here in NE UK. Primroses and violets always bloom together but this year too we have wood anemones, ragged robin, water avens, cowslips and even bluebells and some garlic all out together in the same woods.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 02:36 PM

April showers bring forth deluges and flooded wood shops.....

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 02:01 PM

We've had a bit of a cooldown this week but we're completely past the freezes. Now we're into Tornado season. The garden is looking lovely, and I'm still digging out raised beds to finish planting my crops for this year.

I've assessed the winter damage - I lost a number of plants. A lavender vitex (it usually blooms blue) died but there are suckers from the base so I have my fingers crossed I'll be able to regrow it. I had to cut out a lot of dead branches from a large rosemary on the north side of the house, and my bay laurel has been looking dreadful, but once the dead branches are trimmed it is back to it's old self, though diminished by about 1/3.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 06:40 PM

Tuesday's snow in southern Quebec was a bit of a shock after the wonderful thaw which had cleared most of the snow but caused flooding of roads - such fun! Still some road closings and a washout on he main thoroughfare to New York State - lovely truck traffic on secondary (tertiary?) roads! But the birds are flying happily and we have reason to believe that warmer weather is ahead...

There are crocuses starting to bloom in the Montreal yard that gets the most sun. The cedars made it through the winter. No more snow in the back yard!!! except the skimming from Tuesday. Nothing compared to the 2 feet there was!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: selby
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 06:28 PM

Yorkshire England our neighbour had a swarm of bees in their garden today apparently early for bees. It is very warm for the time of year though.
Keith

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 05:00 PM

Gnu, It sure was windy here (Halifax) last night and this morning, with rain until mid-day. But, it was not cold, and thd Sun came out in the afternoon today. The grass on my lawn is half way to "greening up".

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: gnu
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 04:11 PM

I was out early morn with a light hoodie and top oilskins. I went back out at noon... ran back in the house and put on a parka. It's sunny now, but me nipples would be glass without sommat warm over em. This IS spring in The Maritimes.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 12:41 PM

Snow on the ground in Calgary this morning. Dark and drear.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 11:32 AM

Spring scenes, from The Atlantic:


Spring scenes 

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 14 - 08:19 PM

UK's two weeks ahead of normal, four weeks ahead of last year.
Our bee colonies are on the point of swarming already (normally May/June). NO colonies lost overwinter after the EU stopped neonicotinoid pesticides on a trial basis.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 14 - 04:54 PM

BTW, Spring my arse. It's snowing here in southern Quebec.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: gnu
Date: 15 Apr 14 - 12:53 PM

No problem... it's censored. Audio but no video for me. I likes me porn with pics/video.

Pushin 20C here and the wind is so wicked I had to expose my bald head to it. Took my hat off and stuffed it in my pocket. So, the snow is shrinking very fast, as it has for over a week. Good thing as the forecast includes a 'special weather statement' : In addition, just behind the cold front, a rapid drop in temperatures to below the freezing mark will likely give icy conditions to many areas of the province Wednesday morning. Near the front rain will change to a brief period of snow and ice pellets over most regions. There is also a risk of freezing rain during this changeover.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 14 - 12:26 PM

Is that site allowed for people under the age of 21? The title sure seems circumspect.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 15 Apr 14 - 11:32 AM

An enjoyable Beaver filming:

Beavers know it's Spring 

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 06:51 PM

Hello Eliza

I've been looking after my elderly mother, we lost my father at the beginning of last year and then recently followed by the death of her sister a couple of months ago. So I have been keeping a watchful eye on her making sure that she follows up with her own health issues. Anyway things are improving bit by bit but it was interesting to read your post 'Spring is sprung the grass is riz' because my dad used to recite it every spring! It was lovely to read that. He also used to say 'Fifty fousand feathers on a frushes froat' not very springlike but it just reminded me of it. Good memories.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 08:40 PM

Wash DC suburbs

Tulip Magnolias turning pink! Japanese Cherries threatening to. (next week expectedto be peak) All the Spring flowers quite happy... and several more days forecast. We may survive!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 08:10 PM

Heard a robin today. A little warmer these past few days, hope the ground starts to thaw.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: kendall
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 07:48 PM

Many years ago, Burma Shave put up a series of signs that were spaced so you didn't have to concentrate on one of them. Like this:

When spring is sprung,

And grass is riz,

Here's where last years careless driver is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We now have Crocus in bloom; 'bout time too.
Had a Cooper's Hawk the other day. Plenty of Robins and Cardinals.
I love spring.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 06:40 PM

'Spring is sprung, the grass is riz' etc is by Ogden Nash.

And hello there Patsy! Long time since you posted.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: ragdall
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 06:16 PM

I'm guessing we won't running an Easter egg hunt on the lawns this year?
I took this photo of the front yards yesterday.

On a happier note, Mountain Bluebirds are passing through. Seeing them brings me more joy than you can imagine.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 06:13 PM

It's a typical April here sometimes showers and then beautiful sunshine. It's amazing how everyone's mood changes with a glimpse of the old currant bun.

The silly season has started here already leading up to April 1st it was announced that they were proposing to put a water slide (the kind you would find at a holiday complex or theme park) down one of the main streets in Bristol shutting the street off on Sundays for safety reasons to allow this. I almost fell for it until it suddenly dawned on me how close it was to April Fool's day!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 01:22 PM

No snow left anywhere.
Traces of green on the lawn.
Birds collecting twigs and grass for nests.
Spring, yes, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bettynh
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 12:59 PM

The baseball season has started and the Red Sox have raced to the bottom of the American League East. Our local stadium is a wonderful concrete classic, but nobody has been able to make a profit there, so the stadium is quiet this year. A pity, really, because summer nights of baseball, costing less than a restaurant dinner for a family, are pretty wonderful. Local schools are having to scramble - some of their fields are under water.

The news is full of Boston Marathon preparations. Everyone is alternately proud and troubled about the bombings. Not a single victim that made it to a hospital died. The city endured 4 days of lockdown. They caught the ones responsible. Enough said.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: gnu
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 11:58 AM

I sit upon glacial till at about 35 m above sea level and about 4 km north of The Mighty Petitcodiac. I dread digging any holes here. Matter of fact, no way I could dig one anymore. I'd judge the clay and sand contents at about 20% each, cobble at about 40% and boulder at 20%. I call it glacial crap. Trees grow very well in it but that's about all it's good for.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Janie
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 11:14 AM

The redbuds are in full bloom, and the dogwoods will be in just a few days. Seems spring really has finally arrived.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bettynh
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 11:01 AM

The melt is in full swing with simultaneous flood and fire danger.

Rivers are full of meltwater from our northern NH mountains, though the cold nights seem to be slowing the melt enough to keep them mostly within their banks.

Mud season has come and gone within a couple days during the past week. We're on glacial till, so that's a very local report. I grew up on a bank of clay that probably could have been mined for potting - mud season lasted at least a month and I lost my rubber boots in the muck more than once. Here, I live on the remains of a sandy beach - it's dry as soon as the soil melts and I haven't bothered to buy rubber boots. My neighbor, unfortunately for him, lives on a cobble beach. Every shovelful from his yard is full of fist-sized rocks.

Dry sandy soil with leaves on the surface means we're vulnerable to brush fires until it greens up enough to suppress the possibility. This area was a sand barren before it was colonized. So I'm sorta hoping for rain while others along the river are ok if it holds off.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: gnu
Date: 05 Apr 14 - 02:21 PM

I've seen crows doing a mating dance and blue jays chasing around and the starlings arrived two days ago but when the JWs show up, it's officially spring.

Have you heard the word of the Lord today?

No. Why are you guys so late this year? Why didn't you come a month ago and help me shovel? I'da bought yer rag fer kindling starter if ya had helped out me back.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 14 - 06:19 AM

Spring has sprung the grass has riz.
I wonder where the birdies is.
Some say the bird is on the wing, but that's absurd
Everyone knows, the wing is on the bird.

Told to me long ago by a Scotsman using a Now York-ish accent. Anyone know the origins?

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Apr 14 - 02:11 PM

It is now 8C and sunny, and on the way to +14C in a day or two. The snow is gone from my lawn. I declare it "Spring" on my street.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 03 Apr 14 - 07:26 PM

Ta da! the tiny front yard which gets sun most all day is bare of snow. While the sunniest part of the back yard may be getting there but I am not walking on the two foot deep snow at this end to go see! Montreal is not having to clear the last storm as it is melting rapidly, and thankfully. Still below freezing at night.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bettynh
Date: 03 Apr 14 - 05:15 PM

Dandylion tufts are greening here in NH, and willows are finally beginning to light up - no visible buds yet, but the bark is glowing yellow here and there at the edges of swamps.

In the next couple weeks we'll be straining out ears for spring peepers - tiny frogs that gather in swamps that call mightily. Do you have spring peepers (whoever and wherever you are)?

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 14 - 09:57 PM

Seattle, and the yard is starting its burst. We have in bloom sorrel, periwinkle, hellebore, daphne, leopard's bane, bleeding heart, hyacinth, daffodils, some sort of wild forget-me-not. The crocus are done, but the tulips have buds.

I've felt very lucky that I live in Seattle and haven't had the harsh winter everyone else has had to endure. We have family in Michigan and Minnesota and have constant and current reports that the cold and snow have been unrelenting there.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 14 - 09:06 PM

They are here in southern Quebec. Multitudes. Sounds like multitudinous multitudes--but a real delight to hear. Cardinals, a robin believe it or not, some grackles, starlings, nuthatches, two types of woodpeckers--perhaps the last two peckers not yet elected to public office somewhere in this country, chickadees, bluejays, pigeons, crows and blackbirds. I forgot the sparrows (at lesat a quintet of types) and pigeons, another of which became supper for the Cooper's hawk.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Bettynh
Date: 02 Apr 14 - 02:42 PM

There are always Canada Geese around here in southern NH, Dorothy. I suspect that we're south for one population and north for an entirely different population. My favorite time for watching geese is in early fall, when huge flocks fly in circles low overhead, training the current years' crop of youngsters in precision flying.

Reports of ospreys and eagles are coming in. The almost-local tagged osprey is about to arrive back from Venezuela. Our lakes are still frozen, but most rivers have at least some open water for them to cruise for fish.

The last report I can find of a snowy owl is last week. They've probably headed north.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 02 Apr 14 - 11:47 AM

Montreal/southern Quebec: 38F and brightly cloudy. Smelled like spring in the country yesterday but no bare ground. The Canada Geese were on the move, heading northerly! Lovely sight! Smells like the city in M. Still 2 feet of moderately clean snow in back yard. Front "garden", very small, gets the sun most of day; earth may appear by the end of today. Dirty snow everywhere! Hopeful!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 14 - 10:24 AM

It was the discovery of Higgs-Boson that caused all this here global warming nonsense. Mark my words, Mergatroyd, if man was meant to fly he have been born with goggles.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Leadbelly
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 04:00 PM

Spring?

It's almost summer in Europe and especially in Germany.

Nice people seem to have a nice climate.

Think it over!:)

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 01:22 PM

Ha ha! April Fool! It's only the 1st of April really!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 01:20 PM

Today (2nd April) it's about 20C. Went out in short-sleeved cotton top to the garden centre. Sun very warm. Bought some Heucheras. Husband cut the lawns back and front. Lovely smell of mown grass. Washing line full of washing, nice and dry now to bring in and fold. It isn't like Spring, it's more like Summer!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 01:14 PM

Sleet overnight and into the morning. Currently light fluffy snow with wind. No amount of snow accumulating. Temperature hovering just under the freezing point.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: brashley46
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 12:56 PM

Toronto - high today predicted to be 5C, light rain. The dirty snowbanks full of cigarette butts are finally melting away off the sidewalks, and the bike lanes are mostly clear. No flowers yet, and I have not seen or heard any northbound grackles, but the city pigeons look a little livelier today.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 12:48 PM

Montreal: 36F and bright - sunny with impending clouds and rain tonight. Temp rising and the rest of the week bodes well- about 45F or so. By back yard is still under about 2 feet of snow. A squirrel was frisking about this am.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 12:40 PM

Calgary
May get up to -2C today, with minor snow flurries.
Predicted warming to 8-10 C on the weekend (hurrah!). A bit of surface thawing.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 11:06 AM

Currently about 16C down here in Sussex - about 61F - and very pleasant indeed.

I've been having coffee and the paper out in the back this morning, with butterflies coming out of hibernation (Brimstone, Peacock) and early wild flowers everywhere - dandelions, buttercups, daisies.

Long live the Gulf Stream!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 08:51 AM

I'm sorry to read that, gnu. It's bad enough to have such harsh weather, without the added problem of a long power cut. Stay warm and keep a-troshing!

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: gnu
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 08:39 AM

We had about 25 cm of snow since the freezing ended yesterday afternoon. Many are still without power. Ours was out from 20:30 to 2:40. Still nasty out there with 40-55 kph wind.

The robin was in Mum's apple tree again at dawn. Some kinda beak on that bird.

Subject: RE: BS: SPRING!
From: G-Force
Date: 01 Apr 14 - 08:25 AM

Here in south-east UK it isn't spring until we go away in our caravan. This year it was 21st March.