BS: Spring is here

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 Apr 21 - 04:52 PM

This year we leapt straight from winter into summer. A week ago we were still spitting snow and the winds were icy.

Yesterday at the airport it his 70 degrees and 66 downtown (about 7 miles apart- Juneau is strange that way). In my and my dog's first walk this morning it was 61 degrees. Ah, well. Our blood will get used to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Apr 21 - 11:09 AM

Rhododendrons in bloom (purple-blue-violet).

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Apr 21 - 08:13 AM

As Earths axis tilts into the sun, in our Northern hemisphere,
The darkness starts to decrease, and much lighter days are here.
The weather starts to warm, although some snow may hit the ground,
Whilst snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils, are blooming all around.
Hence how this lovely season, earned its’ name, we call it Spring,
Because of new and regrowth, that this beauteous time can bring.
The trees, plants, bushes and flowers, fill our lands with varied hue,
And birds collect their twigs and straw to line their nests anew.
For people, plants and animals, a refreshing time of year,
Gardeners and farmers both enjoy, a time of simple cheer.
With grazing good, the cows produce a milk so fresh and fine,
And crops grow in abundance, all so green within their prime.
Humans, flora and fauna, seem to sense the seasons coming,
Birds all sing their happy songs, and bees can be heard humming.
The fields begin to fill again, with happy gambolling lambs,
Newly imported beavers, start to build their useful dams.
The air seems so much fresher, from new oxygen provided,
As the lovely flora does its’ job, but it isn’t just one sided.
When we take breath, we breathe it in, and breathe out CO2,
Which the flora need to stay alive, so we help feed them too.
With symbiosis in our land, which we cannot live without,
Our wondrous world, such great design, of that there is no doubt.
I think of this uncertain world, that fills some folk with fear,
Here we are, It’s Spring again. What a lovely year.

Michael J Hill © February 2020.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 21 - 08:18 PM

That umbrella I bought two springs ago,
still works nicely.
I had to scrape the wet spongy snow
off the windscreen of the parked car this morning.
At the same time,
the day warmed up enough
that I saw my first
EARTHWORMS on the wet pavement,
the first since everything froze last autumn.   

I always try not to step on the earthworms or squash them.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 04:05 PM

Fall is also here, or rather, there, for the Down Under folk.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 11:10 AM

The big trees here are still quite bare,
but the smaller shrubby scrubby trees,
and the large bushes and shrubs,
are leafing and blossoming their little hearts out.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Apr 20 - 11:07 PM

Spring is here,
and the squirrels are beside themselves.

Where I sit before a big picture window
at a computer station,
I see these flowering bush things;
they are skinny trunks that blossom high at the top,
and the trunks grow in bunches,
and have a lot of bare branches.
Two squirrels chasing each other IN these skinny things.
And getting distracted by the blossoms.
And it is just too funny to watch --
they keep practically falling out of the flower bushes.
If they only knew how utterly silly they look ...

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Apr 20 - 12:45 PM

April has been exceptionally warm and sunny, but the land became terribly dry. Our village farmers were forced to irrigate their crops this week.
But today, it's been raining all day - wonderful! I can almost hear our garden heaving a sigh of relief.
Makes me think of that song by Ladysmith Black Mambaso, 'Beautiful Rain'!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Apr 20 - 12:39 PM

Sunshine in between rainstorms is a comforting thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 01:50 PM

Im April
thut das Wetter,
was es will ...

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Apr 20 - 09:10 PM

Well, the wind still whistles through
trees with branches that are more or less bare.
But the wind, of late, has been a warmer, softer one;
and those branches
have little buds with tiny green leaves bursting out of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 19 - 03:06 PM

The new umbrella was delivered today. Lifetime guarantee,
not that I have ever had experience with that before,
not in an umbrella. We will see.

No rain has fallen today
even though the clouds overhead
totally look like rain.
The air doesn't have that sharp note of approaching rain in its odor;
it just feels and smells steamy humid.   


Outside the public library,
those tiny little purple flowers have opened up
which the bumblebees go crazy for.
The flowers are very new -- many buds have not fully opened.
Today, one single solitary bumblebee
was zooming around the flower plants in rapid circles
in between humping the blossoms.

But where there is one bumblebee,
there will be many many more.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 May 19 - 05:53 PM

it's the end of May,
and it's raining like the middle of April,
simply soaking.

Just ordered an umbrella.
My last umbrella was a cash-and-carry deal,
and did not age very well;
this umbrella is supposed to be better made. We'll see.
Anyway I'll have to get through the rain without it at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 May 19 - 09:52 PM

This morning I asked myself
why the wind sounds so different now.

But the answer on this windy day is plain to see.

I've been hearing a winter wind for months
driving its way through bare branches of bare trees.
That was more or less true six weeks ago.

But now it is the end of May,
and the maple trees outside the window are fully leaved,
and what a difference it makes
to the sound of the wind!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 May 19 - 01:40 PM

And spring honestly is here.
There is more than enough steady, soaking rain.
The trees are a blinding new-leaved green:
in German they would say 'zartes Grün," tender green.

And the temperature is mild, with little wind.
Not summer
-- and positively NOT winter.

It won't last long, it never does in this day and age,
but spring is here none the less.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 13 May 19 - 08:56 PM

I have an electric mattress pad and an electric blanket.
The one time I went to the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival in New Hampshire, which is always the last weekend of September, I came downstairs after the first night and told the desk clerk that I'd kept turning up the heat but the room never got warmer. He said the heat hadn't been turned on for the winter yet! Of course the next night was cold, too, but I brought up a blanket I keep in my car. A friend has since told me she always travels with an electric blanket, which sounds like a good idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 May 19 - 02:59 PM

The 4th has been and gone,
and so has Cinco de Mayo,
and even Mother's Day is just past.

So what happens in eastern Massachusetts?
The better part of this coming week
is going to be more March -- the "like a lion" part --
than May.

Okay, no blizzards, but nights below freezing,
and the landlord has turned the heat off
in my apartment building. At least I think the manager has.

Fine, I'll break out the warm nightgown, the bed socks,
and pile on top of the bed
every blanket and coverlet I own ...

happens twice a year anyway, the night-without-heat transition.
I'll survive.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 04 May 19 - 12:01 PM

May the 4th be with you

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 May 19 - 11:40 AM

its still bloody cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 May 19 - 05:19 PM

Heard from Senoufou/Eliza recently
who advised me
that the Mad Swans have yet to put in an appearance ...
wonder what happened.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Apr 19 - 02:15 PM

I dearly miss Senoufou / Eliza
and her updates on
The Mad Swans and their cygnets,
waddling down the town road.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 Apr 19 - 06:01 PM

April brings the sweet spring showers,
On and on for hours and hours.             -- Michael Flanders

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Apr 19 - 11:30 AM

:^/
I am allergic to Boston in the Spring. Red oak pollen seals my eyes shut. No red oak here.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 10:13 PM

Whereas I think I'm already rediscovering seasonal allergies!
Cough--sputter--sneeze--wheeze.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 09:31 AM

It's Spring
and this lovesick lunatic
woke up this morning groaning and laughing
Breakfast tastes better I'm light as a feather
and my brain is as fresh as the rain.
Sure my calf is torn my head lightly aches
but my mind's delightfully awake.
I'm not fine but I sure am dandy
Each fragrant breath feels like peach brandy
Because it's Spring.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Apr 19 - 08:05 PM

I woke up the lawn mower after a winter of hibernation.

charge...clear...charge...clear pa dum pa dum padumdumdumdum brouwwwmmmm

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Apr 19 - 02:29 PM

Blue sky for a change -- a bonus.
After all that rain
the trees and grass are loud with green,
and you ought to hear
the twilight choruses hereabouts.
There's more than
bellowing spring peepers now,
there are whistling bird calls in the mix
(grackles? blackbirds?).

I removed the combination snow brush / ice scraper
from the back seat of my sedan,
to put it in seasonal retirement in
the closet in the spare room.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Apr 19 - 04:24 PM

Azaleas are arriving in every color but blue
Daffodils are now all gone

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Apr 19 - 02:21 PM

rain ... rain ... rain ...

hope the earthworms
have got enough oxygen somewhere ...

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 01:23 PM

A swallow arrived yesterday on the 19th. It looks like they have reset their clocks to be the same as last year, a week later than they used to arrive.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 11:31 AM

Green on the TREES, at last -- took long enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Apr 19 - 05:50 PM

Bright yellow forsythia fully in bloom,
a lovely sight
against newly green grass lawns and hedges.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 19 - 01:49 PM

Flowers in April hereabouts have mixed messages.
I am as happy as everyone else when bulbs and seeds and trees
send up blossoms where they grow.

I have mixed emotions when a barren piece of ground,
in one day's time,
suddenly has DAFFODILS!!, about a dozen of them,
screaming yellow, white, and green at me as I drive the car past.
Somebody put them there ... should I not be pleased?
For some reason it sets my teeth on edge.
Never mind, I'll get used to them.


What I love is the blooms on the magnolia trees!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Apr 19 - 11:36 AM

Outdoor concerts!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Apr 19 - 11:11 AM

The swan boats went into service
at the Boston Public Gardens.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Apr 19 - 08:56 PM

A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
And fronts the wind to unruffle a plume,
His song so pitched as not to excite
A single flower as yet to bloom.
It is snowing a flake, and he half knew
Winter was only playing possum.
Except in color he isn't blue,
But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom.       -- Robert Frost

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Apr 19 - 11:57 AM

For the first time in months,
the parked car in the sun
was TOO hot
and the refrigerated air was turned on.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Apr 19 - 08:31 AM

Flowers can be misleading. I saw lots of those little blue things — scylla? — two days ago, and even some daffs, and yesterday we woke up with flipping SNOW.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 10:34 PM

I finally spotted several daffodils! They were in a churchyard across from the library in a nearby town.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 10:01 AM

Yes, Keb, Stratford is a hub of hog husbandry.

Tourists drawn to our little gem of a town generally think that Stratford is about Art in general, and Theatre in particular. Live here for any length of time, and one quickly learns that Stratford is actually about Farming in general (and Pork in particular), with a sideline of light industry and rather a lot of hockey and church on the side. The theatre festival is merely the top dressing on this fertile mix, bringing substantial numbers of cash-heavy customers to the downtown businesses that, in other towns, died of starvation when the malls arrived. Stratford has a Wal-Mart and a big-box Canadian Tire, but Downie Street -- the main commercial drag -- still boasts a genuine old-fashioned independent department store.

Every now and then, when the wind is in the wrong quarter, the reek of hog manure seeps inescapably through town, vigorously reminding us of the true foundation of local prosperity.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Apr 19 - 09:37 AM

The trees have now turned green and you can no longer see through the forests.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Apr 19 - 06:30 PM

See the Varmints thread for
an expert opinion on
what worms need when
they come out in the rain.
Donuel is on the right track -- oxygen --
but it's more complicated than "not drowning".

Thanks for the Stratford, Ontario update.
I didn't know you were surrounded by hog farms. We live and learn.

A thought for the Mad Swans
and their cygnets in Senoufou's town not far from the river.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Charmion
Date: 09 Apr 19 - 09:25 AM

Here in Stratford, Ontario, Spring has most definitely sprung. The municipal swans are on the river, the robins are bobbing around everybody's lawn, and the red-wing blackbirds are buzzing unwary walkers who get too close to THIS IS MY TREE -- PISS OFF! I spotted the first band of intrepid Asian tourists downtown last week, and the actors (members of the Stratford Theatre Festival company) have returned, like the swallows to Capistrano.

This being the heart of hog country, the unmistakable pong of pig poop is in the air most days, so the pork producers are hosing out their barns.

In this halcyon period between the disappearance of snow and the arrival of the first car-trippers, there is still parking for locals within hailing distance of the nice restaurants and coffee shops. We enjoy it while it lasts.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Apr 19 - 04:43 PM

keb, its trying not to drown

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Apr 19 - 04:33 PM

Windows open!

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Apr 19 - 12:38 PM

Yes, the spring peepers are significant to me every year,
but it is
another life form that clenches it for me, spring-wise:

the earthworm.

Today, after a night and a morning of rain,
the earthworms are out of the soil
and positively cluttering the concrete pavement.
I'm darned if I know
what an earthworm is trying to accomplish
on concrete pavement, but there it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Apr 19 - 08:43 AM

Some days the breath of Spring is the bad breath of sour mulch that smells like vomit and rages into that good night.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Apr 19 - 04:23 PM

"Seeing a post from Senafou is like spring sunshine but alas her soul was poisoned by a mean boy whose posts are often November wind gusts on their way to the dead of winter. Its best to remember his September."

And you're an arsehole. Get yourself another hobby, please.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Apr 19 - 12:42 PM

More green in the grass than in the trees at this point.

The trees are still like,
Really? You sure about that?
If we put out buds, the buds won't freeze?

But the green grass is pushing through the dried brown/yellow growth.

Subject: RE: BS: Spring is here
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Apr 19 - 04:47 PM

... and here, at last, comes the rain.