BS: Spring is here

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 May 23 - 07:05 PM

Sadly, around the Hudson River Valley area,
the apple orchard suffered a terrible blow
when a late frost happened this month --
the trees were already blooming.

The newspaper said that 75% of this year's crop may have been lost.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 May 23 - 08:17 AM

I believe the peepers have finished peeping,
but they were certainly really loud for a while there.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 May 23 - 05:20 PM

... and it's raining, a good soaking rain here.
We need it: all the green growing things are fully leafed out now, and they are thirsty.
Still moderately cool for May;
we will look back, in August, with longing for cool days like these.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 17 May 23 - 09:05 PM

The mouse crunch is hard to reproduce. Organic mice you keep in the fridge is distasteful to some and a surprise for the kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 May 23 - 01:08 PM

Good News: our replacement robin showed himself today. Hopefully this one won't cheek the cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 23 - 12:50 PM

Putting in more of the garden this week. It's still too cool for some things, but tomatoes and peppers will be fine now.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Apr 23 - 12:15 AM

> Well Billy Connolly once queried why it was that there was no such
> product as mouse-flavour cat food...

Possibly because the cat-food manufacturers use human taste-testers (who ensure it doesn't taste of nothing), and they don't know what mouse tastes of.

Generally, though, the individual death is a tragedy, but it helps keep the population bounded. You'd be surprised how few generations of (eg) starlings it would take, in the absence of starvation, sudden death by cat etc, for the offspring to entirely fill a sphere the diameter of the solar system with starlings. In the particular case of robins, they're vicious little offenders with a correspondingly shortened life expectancy.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 04:31 PM

Well Billy Connolly once queried why it was that there was no such product as mouse-flavour cat food...

Unfortunately, our cat also had a robin last week. She rarely catches birds so that was disappointing. But I'm still nowhere near ready to join the Bill Oddie/Chris Packham school of cat-haters.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 03:49 PM

> . . . score one for the cat . . .

He was In Disgrace for the rest of the day, which really confused him. Usually he gets praised when he brings us tribute; it's often at half past yesterday, and he won't shut up his meowling till someone has got out of bed, gone downstairs and admired his kill. (We're not sure whether he's trying to train us to hunt, or to tell us "*this* is what dinner is supposed to taste of".)

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 10:55 AM

. . . score one for the cat . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 09:59 AM

Sadly our local robin, who'd been serenading Herself recently, cheeked the cat once too often, and that were that. There'll probably be another robin along soon, but it's a temporary hole in our soundscape.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 06:40 PM

The flora sharks of Spring are the parasitic vines on the trees and bushes. I have been cutting and killing vines that during this time of year expose them. OMG some were half as thick as my wrist. Its time to plant the iris bulbs.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 09:48 AM

Well, I do confess to a tendency to romanticize.
I like to think of the earthworms coming out to wriggle on the pavements
as wriggling for joy that it's warm and wet enough to be spring.
Anyway, it's dangerous for them, it turns out,
to be in a spot where the sun can dry them out:
I once read, in my turn, that earthworms have to be good and damp
in order to take in oxygen.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 04:32 AM

Point of order: I read once that earthworms surface to avoid drowning in their burrows. The ones who are happy in our garden are Mr and Mrs Thrush.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Apr 23 - 06:49 PM

We're supposed to be due for a week of rain, rain, rain.
Which will bother the sun-lovers amongst us,
but the green growing things will be very happy.
(And the earthworms.)

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Apr 23 - 10:30 AM

Rain is falling steadily in Berkshire County, western Massachusetts.
It isn't too cold either.
We could have earthworms sprawling on the sidewalks,
but they are not out yet.
THe flowering trees are flowering,
and many other trees have tiny pale green leaves.
And the geese are coming back North.
And the peepers have been peeping.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Apr 22 - 06:15 AM

The Azaleas are in full glory.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 08:02 PM

It's been an odd year so far for rainfall, talking about here in Bude in Cornwall. In January we had just about two inches, the bulk of it by the 10th. The average is just short of four inches. February was just short of the average of three inches, the only typical month so far. March delivered just under three inches, half an inch below average, which doesn't sound remarkable until it's pointed out that the month was virtually bone-dry after the 13th with a spell of unusually warm weather. The average for April is just over two inches, but so far we've had a smidgeon over an inch and it looks like not raining again at all here this month. We've had just a quarter of an inch since the 8th and my grass has stopped growing. Two years ago we had an incredibly sunny spring (March to May 2020) which outshone almost every summer (June to August) on record. I'll be dusting off the barbie as soon as I've cleared all my beds of a mild winter's-worth of rather lush weeds.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 09:12 AM

I reseeded some bare patches on our front dandelion patch yesterday as rain was due today. If it doesn't arrive I will use the hose.

In other news, spring must have arrived coz my long sleeve shirts and thick pullies have gone ito storage to be replaced by short sleeved shirts :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 09:09 AM

It's showering in London.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 06:30 AM

As I'm on a water meter, I can't run my hose for too long. And my rainwater barrel has been empty for ages. Like yours, Steve, my lawns have stopped growing and are going yellow.
Don't even mention heath fires! Some idiot will no doubt fling a cigarette away or leave a bonfire burning and set the countryside alight.
This is very like 1976, the year of the Great Drought.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 05:47 AM

There's little rain forecast in the short to medium term. It's been so dry that my grass has stopped growing. Next thing will be blazes on Dartmoor...

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Apr 22 - 03:31 AM

When oh when will we have some rain? The land is bone dry, I'm sick and tired of hosing my garden and the poor wildlife is very thirsty.
The river in our village is very low. A lovely big black cloud drifted overhead this morning at 6am (I'm an early riser, so I saw it) but it shed not a drop, and now the sun is shining brightly.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Apr 22 - 05:37 PM

We have leaves on the trees! They've been a long time coming out!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 03:40 PM

Our wysteria is suddenly a-bloom, though it's a bit lopsided this year after a professional pruning. In other news, I've been opening windows for the bumblebees which haven't yet cottoned on that there's a house in their flight paths.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 02:57 PM

As the azaleas emerge.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 11:47 AM

Alas the bumble bees are back.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 10:24 AM

Magnolia trees in blossom here.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 09:39 PM

The spring peepers are in full cry.
Lots of marshes and wetlands and ditches and all,
where I am staying, in a small country town.
And good Lord, the commotion.
As ever, the peepers are peeping as though
the future of their species depends on it ...
which i suppose it does.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Apr 22 - 12:21 PM

You will be happy to know that the rampant-squirrel thread is no more.
I'm not happy, since I started it, but the rest of you will be.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 05 May 21 - 01:10 PM

The Azales are fading and the baby bamboo shoots are growing 2 feet a day. The giant ciccada killers in the the tens of thousands are still small and starting their burrows that look like little pyramids. The ciccadas themselves are still burrowing up through newly softened soil toward a new life of light and flight.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 May 21 - 05:45 AM

First swallow of the year today. 3 weeks late!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Apr 21 - 10:49 AM

Yesterday it was the rain,
today it is the wind,
with the clouds RACING across the sky outside the window.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Apr 21 - 12:51 PM

April Showers,
whereat the local farmers rejoice mightily.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Apr 21 - 07:41 PM

Something just happened called a Super Pink Full Moon,
so why do I feel so blue . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Apr 21 - 03:03 PM

Mid 50s here in the heat of the day. I'm working outside in shorts and boots. The sidewalks are fully clear of snow but there are some street piles and there are major hills piled up by the roadclearing crews which will be visible through May. But it is glorious.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Apr 21 - 12:45 PM

That was then, this is now. Its 80 F. here today.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Apr 21 - 10:31 AM

"Will summer be too hot...?"

Not for me it won't. It may get a bit too humid at times, but never too hot. I've spent a few August weeks in inland Andalucía (quite near Tabernas Desert) when the temperature is routinely in the range 35 to 40C, similarly in Granada and Córdoba, with humidity in the teens or single numbers. I can take that any time with the proviso that my balding head and my forehead mustn't be allowed to burn. On the other hand, we were at Lake Como one June in temperatures of 35 to 37C in high humidity. Foolishly, we decided to do the steep uphill hike to Chiesa San Martino, a tiny church perched high on the mountainside above the lake. We thought it would be OK because much of the hike was in the shade of woodland. We forgot that the trees also cancelled out the breeze completely. Fortunately for us, we were the only eejits daft enough to try the climb that day and we were able to eat lunch disrobed with clothes spread out to dry on the rocks. What a view though (of the lake and mountains, not us). A terrific overnight thunderstorm cleared the air. Next morning the mountains were draped in wisps of cloud with the peaks standing proud in the sunshine.

So I don't agree with the Bard when he writes that "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines," but I'm with him when he says that "...summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Apr 21 - 10:33 PM

Another sign that spring has arrived:

road crews repairing potholes on streets, driveways,
access ramps etc absolutely everywhere.
It's like a sea of orange out there
with all the orange cones and orange barrels on the roads.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: JHW
Date: 26 Apr 21 - 06:07 AM

Been wearing shorts all week, lots of flowers and warm in the day. Will summer be too hot or will it rain?

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Apr 21 - 01:55 PM

A condition of moderate drought is asserted
for the northeastern piece of the continental US,
so this rainy weekend is good news for the farmers.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Apr 21 - 11:04 PM

Spring ought to be back in about twelve to twenty-four hours.

This was our second day of snowstorms and high winds,
and it is going down to freezing tonight.

the crucial thing is
to avoid working up a sweat and
THEN catching a chill ...

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 07:05 PM

Spring is here, but we have a frost forecast overnight, so I can wait one more day to put some of the stuff in the new garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 06:22 PM

We had our first housefly of the year - bloody nuisance.
Couple of goldfinch chased off by one of our resident sparrows!
Lovely day 18C and Spring is definitely here - for the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 12:26 AM

It's been warm and lovely, we are in-between tulips and irises, the birds are singing, but tomorrow, snow is predicted.

April may not be the cruelest month, but it's the most irritating.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 09:25 AM

My first sighting of a male orange-tip butterfly this morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Apr 21 - 06:23 AM

Shade temperatures may not have reached much above 10C for the past couple of weeks (we had a warmer week before that) but we (North Norfolk UK) have had some sunny days that have felt quite warm, at least if you stay in the sunshine. Mum has spent a couple of afternoons sitting outside on the (south facing and getting full sun) bench in the field.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 18 Apr 21 - 08:49 PM

Spring is here, Spring is here

First line of the Tom Lehrer classic "poisoning pigeons in the park£".

Perhaps the Orwell quote is more apt.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 18 Apr 21 - 06:25 PM

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, 12 April 1946

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Apr 21 - 06:10 PM

We've had less then half an inch of rain in the last five weeks, after an extremely soggy winter. We've had a fifth of an inch in the last three weeks. It's sunny but it's never warm. We're lucky if we get 13C (55F) and we're getting a frost most nights.