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: gnu Date: 20 Mar 17 - 06:16 AM Eight more minutes! |
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: keberoxu Date: 20 Apr 16 - 01:36 PM DANDELIONS!! |
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: keberoxu Date: 04 Apr 16 - 03:19 PM Snow today, mud tomorrow? |
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: gnu Date: 01 Apr 16 - 06:54 AM 16C today! |
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: 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: 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: 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: Ed T Date: 31 Mar 16 - 09:16 AM End of winter |
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: 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: 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: 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: gnu Date: 29 Mar 16 - 04:00 PM Nasty March squalls today. Got Mum about 300' from the house in the "Iron Overcoat"* and she said, "I don't want to go." I turned the car around and took her home. Sigh. * CW Gary Owens short story 1987 |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Dave the Gnome Date: 29 Mar 16 - 10:05 AM It snowed here in Yorkshire today! But only for a few minutes. Tail end of winter storm Katie I suspect. Lovely outside now. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Rapparee Date: 29 Mar 16 - 09:01 AM It didn't snow last night, so maybe it is. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: keberoxu Date: 28 Mar 16 - 02:32 PM ....nothing quite like it for cool-ing the blood.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Steve Shaw Date: 27 Mar 16 - 05:56 PM I had a pot of hyacinths in the house. I swooned every time I went into the room, so moved it into the porch. Then I swooned every time I came home, so I moved it outside. Walking through one of those department stores where the ladies' perfumery department occupies the whole of the shop just inside the entrance has the same effect on me. I have to hold my breath and proceed with great speed to get through it. I don't want to die. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Donuel Date: 27 Mar 16 - 05:49 PM I have 60 hyacinths by the front door. You can cut the aroma with a knife. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: gnu Date: 27 Mar 16 - 05:35 AM GLORIOUS weather in SE New Brunswick, Canada. In like a lamb, out like a lamb this year. I am LOVIN IT! I hope we have a long spring and a moderate summer like we had last year. Of course, with the snow cover we have (WAY down from last year), well, we shall see. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Steve Shaw Date: 26 Mar 16 - 05:27 PM Ah, that one. The one which, when consumed by dairy cattle, makes milk and cheese taste garlicky! We have a lot of three-cornered garlic in Cornwall, Allium triquetrum, which some people use in cookery. The nicest one, very abundant in these parts, is Allium ursinum, which we call ramsons or just wild garlic. Adds a nice mild garlicky touch to any dish you like. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Janie Date: 26 Mar 16 - 12:54 AM Fossil, always enjoy posts regarding not only the season, but also about the seasonal flora and fauna south of the equator, around the globe, and especially that part of the globe that occupies two hemispheres different from the two my body happens to reside within. Steve Shaw - Allium vineale is the species of field/wild garlic to which I refer. Occasionally will run across wild onion (Allium canadense) on walks, but field garlic is by far the predominate species here, and judging by taste and smell, the only winter/early spring wild allium growing in my garden beds or yard. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: GUEST,# Date: 25 Mar 16 - 10:30 PM Money's short and times are hard, So here's your fu#kin' Easter card. |
Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here From: Dave the Gnome Date: 25 Mar 16 - 05:47 PM Spring has sprung The grass has ris 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. |