BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 07:32 PM

I ordered some of the most bizarre Hawaian shirts I could find, one for each week of summer. No more jackets for spring, just sweaters. But summer, ahh.
More than half of the shirts are processing or out of stock so I'll try new ones with the credit.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 03:17 PM

A cool, witheringly dry winter wind
scouring the clear blue sky today,
and things will refreeze for a little while.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 09:54 PM

Temperatures about to take a nose dive this weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: JHW
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 05:31 AM

Lots of Arum leaves in local hedgebacks. Usually very rare in the grim North of England as they are sposed to need chalk, we have clay. Some in garden too. Now not.
See what happens later in spring.
Seen some Coltsfeet flowering. Leaves later as you'll know.
'

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 12:28 AM

I AM looking forward to Spring, but I'm not in a rush.

We've been having a lovely winter here in Southcentral Alaska. While we've been laying doggo in our homes people here are abundant in common sense and our numbers have been improving. We've been free to shop and to pick up meals to go and to walk in the lovely parks of the city.

Since we're into March, I especially notice the ravens which are expressing territoriality and pairing up and playing face-off air games in the winds that create updrafts and gusts over the edges of our market buildings. Of an evening large males are making their quark calls atop forests of parking lot lamps. I will miss them, because in the warmer weather of Spring they will be much less represented in their foodland of humanity, but rather will raise their young in the wildlands about twenty or more miles away, a safe commute for the adults.

In the past I've noticed the interface of large populations of birds as seagulls will arrive and there will be a period with lots of them an lots of ravens. Both are supreme aerialists, but being built differently, their expertise varies. Gulls are highly maneuverable and lighter than ravens, and built for more soaring. Ravens are generalists, heavier and broader of body, lower aspect ratio of wing, hence they don't soar like the killing birds of prey. But their play, their rapid rolls are akin to eagles. They appear to me to be smarter than the gulls, and the gulls will yield to them.

We also have pigeons, which I also like, but unless you're near a gathering of them you don't notice them so much. I believe they are year-rounders like the ravens, but I believe they are strictly urban. As we walk the sidewalks streets and parks, we also run into urban moose, and these are rarely aggressive, but they can be, particularly around other moose and dogs.

I saw a black bear in the neighborhood last summer, and I know that bears have been around throughout the winter, but it is less usual to run into signs of bear than moose.

And everywhere we have these magical ever changing examples of hard water. How hard it can be, how soft it can be, how it can vary from day to day. If you want to go high into the nearby mountains you will strap spikes to your boots. If you want to maintain yourself on the many trails, you will fit your shoes or boots into elastic and chaing linked little spikes. If you simply want to survive a tilty parking lot, you will snap on mini or nano grips. And you will do something similar for your vehicle.

The backyard toys seem to be endless: Snowshoes, nordic skis, skate skis, crampons and ice axes. And of course all those fuel burning toys, which I have for the most part avoided.

So, Spring will come when it comes. The days are growing perceptibly and their growing is growing. It will top out soon at solstice, and of course we'll shift to Daylight Savings Time, which will be another presage to the incoming season, but we'll be able to ski locally (as in right outside on the sidewalk) for a few weeks more.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 07:26 AM

Pretty cold wind here though a run of partly sunny days, and it’s light until 6 pm. Some wonderful displays of crocus in the various parks, just coming up through the grass. Clocks go forward in a few weeks’ time.
Police out fining people who stray out of their local council areas, and parking attendants on mopeds ticketing people who park on grass verges or pavements near beauty spots where people go to walk.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: JHW
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 11:18 AM

'the snow is retreating and exposing the green grass that somehow over-wintered beneath.'

Philip Larkin wrote a poem First Sight. Only two verses.
`Lambs that learn to walk in snow, when their bleating clouds the air
Meet a vast unwelcome, know nothing but a sunless glare
Newly stumbling to and fro, all they find outside the fold
Is a wretched width of cold

As they wait beside the ewe, her fleeces wetly caked, there lies
Hidden round them, waiting too, Earth's immesurable surprise,
They could not grasp it if they knew, what so soon will wake and grow
Utterly unlike the Snow.'

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 08:50 PM

We have a beautiful day here in Missouri. I bet it was 70 degrees. I took my recorder and my travelling music book out on the front porch and serenaded the populace. Our front porch is up in the air, so I'm in a private nook.

The first pedestrian who came by waved said "That was beautiful."

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 03:23 PM

The full lockdown in Ontario began on Monday, 16 March 2020. Vaccine distribution has finally begun for people who are not among the most vulnerable, and so Spring will be extra-specially springy this year.

But we're still getting snow squalls, so ... not chucking the heavy boots yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 02:39 PM

This morning it feels like Spring! The sun is warm and bright, the snow is retreating and exposing the green grass that somehow over-wintered beneath.

Of course, logically speaking, winter is not over. Early March brings on late-winter storms. On the other hand, mid-April heralds southeastern Alaska's dryest season, and that is next month.

Our dry, bright weather typically lasts until the end of June. It is a busy time of year for tourism, fishing and flying, hiking and camping... Don't know how it will be this year- last year it was almost totally different. Lock-down began in March (One week from now it will be a year since I started mine), there were no cruiseships, meaning no hordes of tourists, and daily bad news on many different levels.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 09:43 PM

This is the first night I heard the spring peepers peeping. The day temp was 50 and the night is clear and full of stars with a prominate Mars.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 06:16 PM

Snow squalls today in Stratford, Ontario. In fact, we usually get our last big snow storm of the year around the equinox, and an overnight sprinkle of snow as late as early May is not unusual.

The soil around here has a heavy clay layer about a foot below the surface, so the fields will be soggy with flooded areas until after Victoria Day (24 May), which is when we can count on no more frost till fall.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: JHW
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 02:40 PM

Yes plenty of mud yesterday even avoiding set fields. Some still flooded so impassable.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 02:09 PM

Mud, mud, glo-ri-ous mud . . .

(cue Flanders & Swann, At the Drop of a Hat)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: JHW
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 05:31 AM

Last spring (2020)I did my Snowdrop walks before covid struck but haven't been able too this year as we have to 'stay at home'. Missed bluebells and wild daffodils last year too, loads of bluebell carpet places all too far away, also Farndale daffodils. Did see primroses in Smardale Gill between lock downs. (they like old railway cuttings)
So will mostly see only local spring this year and be looking forward rather to summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 11:57 PM

Here in Kansas City we had one day of spring - 60 degrees. Today is the day of my annual Attack on the Foreign Invaders. When a beautiful day comes in February, I go out in the yard and spray green weeds such as ground ivy, dandelions and Tartarian honeysuckle.

I read in a garden book that plants which are green at the wrong time of year are foreign plants, some of which could be desirable, of course. But many are pests. So we clobber it when the other plants are dormant and no insects are about.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 06:36 PM

Another one looking forward to autumn, although it hasn't been a horribly hot summer - for a change.

Helen, we moved from the Big Smoke several years ago to an inland town and don't miss the humidity at all. If there are rain and/or storms hanging around we really notice the (slightly!) raised humidity here.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 11:31 AM

Rather Spring like here in very South Croydon, but cold at night with frosts over last 2!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 10:59 AM

This summer Oz had a pandemic instead of huge fires. They handled it better than than the US.
Birds and daffodils are starting up again here.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 03:51 PM

I can take any amount of heat (and humidity!). It's the cold and the dreary wet weather that bring me down.
Trouble is, my poor husband starts to suffer from hay fever when the tree pollen gets going (early Spring). He has medication, but it makes him drowsy and dopey.
The pigs have been recaptured and their fence mended. But for some reason they always manage to find a way out of their field. Someone saw them actually climbing up the fence! Never knew pigs could climb!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Helen
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 03:31 PM

Well thanks very much, Jon Freeman! LOL

Yes, areas with high humidity and heat are much harder to bear than the dry heat further inland.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 03:20 PM

We can forget about you upside down people.

I think brother who's Sunshine Coast region may be glad of an Autumn change. I've not heard how it's been this year but he tells me summer combination of heat and humidity is not always pleasant.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Helen
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 03:06 PM

Not me! I'm looking forward to Autumn. Less heat, no drought for a change, hopefully no floods or bushfires or other disasters.

My Country –
Dorothea Mackellar, 1906

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 02:55 PM

Yesterday it was 18 degrees!! Unbelievably warm after all that snow and below-zero temperatures. (Minus 9)
We have crocuses, snowdrops, polyanthus, miniature daffodils in bloom.The birds are singing and everything is looking perky.
However, we've seen all this before. March, even April, can turn nasty.
But the sunshine lifted everyone's spirits here in the village - most people out for walks, dogs galloping around and even the tame deer BamBam zooming about getting into mischief!
Two fat sows escaped from their field and joined in the fun. Crazy place!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 12:49 PM

Well, I don't hear any spring peepers peeping hereabouts,
however
the warmer winter days
permit a taste of "mud season" already.
( Seriously, gotta watch the footwear outside.)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 10:55 PM

It was 78 today.

The spring peepers were 5 times louder tonight than last night.

I hopw they did not emerge so early as to leave them without food , as global warming has caused many birds to suffer a loss of food for their young since caterpillers have hatched a month too early for their chicks to be fed.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:13 PM

We don't have skunks in Alaska. For us, the first sound of spring is the long, sweet, pure whistle of the Varied Thrush in the forest.

We STILL have lots of snow everywhere,- with more forecast - but I imagine that deep down below the thick blanket the crocus is preparing itself. (However, at the rate this winter is going it may be June before all the snow is melted. Odds are not lookin' good. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:02 PM

My favourite season.all newborn and the countryside smells beautiful.Is there anything that can beat the smell of freshly mown grass.I am fortunate that i dont suffer hayfever,sorry you poor sufferers.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Scrump
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 09:42 AM

Ahh, the smell of bacon frying through the open windows in the morning - that always reminds me of spring :-)

Anyway, I reckon spring's here now, so I can't look forward to it any more. I'm looking forward to the summer instead - beers and BBQs in the garden, folk festivals, sunshine, bad air quality, overheating, not being able to sleep at night, sweating all the time, having to travel in overcrowded commuter trains like saunas... hmmm, maybe spring isn't so bad after all :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 04:58 PM

one of my favorite smells of all time is hyacinth. As an apartment dweller in the city (and someone with a black thumb!) I don't get to enjoy any planted outside, but right around Easter is a great time for me to wander the floral department of my local grocery store and soak up as much of it as I can get!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 03:26 PM

Ottawa has just started to warm up, and I actually walked to work in shoes yesterday despite the lingering snowbanks and slush -- every year I just can't wait to get out of galoshes. We had our first above-freezing daily highs this weekend, and the weather forecast is now calling for "rain or snow". Or both, which is actually most likely.

Roll on the Equinox!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Bee
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 10:42 AM

It's mild and sunny here today, and I checked on my garden. Joy! My William and Marys (pulmonaria) are sprouting, and my irises, daylilies, perennial geraniums, tulips, all peeking green outta the ground!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 04:09 AM

I have three gorgeous white hyacinths in the garden. If I sit in the dining room and open the window, the smell is stupendous.

Sure beats the smell eminating from the lair of the Limpit. She's been blaming the cats but today we found a small science project (possibly penicillin, possibly a new life form) and a teapot half full of what was once milky tea. . .

I may need to borrow a skunk to use as an air freshener in there.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 04:05 AM

There are lot of beautiful daffodils round here...they really brighten my day up. I love spring and the flowers and the greenery adn the warming days. Its nearly here!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 03:57 AM

Sure it wasn't these you meant?

It's a wee bit early still for bluebells, they wait until April/May to flower, but the smell of a sun warmed bluebell glade is like nothing on earth... bliss!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 09:20 PM

Oops- llong day - perhas I was thinking about the bluebird of happiness!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Bee
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 08:57 PM

TRUEBRIT, I'm betting you meant 'drifts of bluebells', as 'drifts of bluebirds' would be a mite dismal, given they are usually airborne or chirpin' on twigs. ;-)

Fields of buebells are indeed lovely, but I'll raise you a riverbank covered in trout Lilies and Bluets, or an upland field of blooming pink Rhodora.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 08:23 PM

Janie -- you are right of course -- lots of Spring flowers here -- I just get sentimental at times......having said that I don't think there is ANYTHING to touch drifts of English bluebirds........

Your beautiful flower cards certainly help put me in the Spring mood.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Bee
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 07:52 PM

Only sign of spring here is a certain scent on the March wind, smell of wet dead leaves and swelling alder buds. I'm watching for Coltsfoot along the road.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: bfdk
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 06:24 PM

Saw 3 butterflies today, one either a small tortoiseshell or a peacock, the other two definitely small tortoiseshells. Also saw two large bumblebees. Spring is definitely around the corner :-)

Best wishes,

Bente

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Janie
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 06:23 PM

We look to be in for a dry spring to match the dry winter we had. We are smack in the middle of daffodil season--the early one's are gone the middle ones are prime, and the late daffs are in bud. My earliest tulips are in full bloom, as are the old heirloom hyacinthes that I have never been able to identify. The dwarf iris--some crested and some reticulated are just about finished. Common speedwell, henbit, purple deadnettle, bulbous buttercup carpet the yards of people like myself who don't put much effort into lawns.

But you sure can tell it's dry.

Temps have moderated to daytime sweater weather and nighttime jacket weather. I'm waiting to see the redbuds and dogwoods start blooming in yards and along forest edges.

I've seen pictures of drifts of English Bluebells. They are lovely.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Peace
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 05:43 PM

Dead Skunk
( Loudon Wainwright III )

Crossin' the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are!

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose!
Roll up yer window and hold yer nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Yeah you got yer dead cat and you got yer dead dog
On a moonlight night you got yer dead toad frog
Got yer dead rabbit and yer dead raccoon
The blood and the guts they're gonna make you swoon!
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

C'mon stink!

You got it!
It's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle!
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven!
All over the road, technicolor man!
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinkin' to high, high Heaven!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 05:30 PM

Saw wild daffodils in bloom today, Flowering currant bush in leaf, we have polyanthus in flower in the garden, and a miniature rhododendron too.
I will take the covers off my boat this weekend, and check her over, and dig the emergency outboard out of the garage.
Watch out fishes!

Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 04:58 PM

A sad sign of Spring, I went by the first skunk-who-didn't-make-it-across-the-road on my way home last evening...

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: maeve
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 06:52 AM

All the wildflowers mentioned by Bee and by Janie, along with many more, bloom here in Maine. We have a lovely spring- but having said that it is an elusive season unless you are outside searching it out.

For me, it begins with the black-capped chickadee's spring song and the first appearance of skunks wobbling across the road. The red elder buds are already swollen, and I hear the chickadees!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Scrump
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 06:25 AM

Yesterday dinner time* we were able to sit outside the pub in the sun, 17 deg C, wearing T-shirts and (of course) drinking beer. The first day this year of many, I hope!

* 'lunch time' to posh folk

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Bee
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 07:29 PM

Definitely eager for spring... just a month away from Spring Peepers here... six weeks to Mayflowers, Leatherleaf, white violets, Trout Lily, Bluets, Clintonia, purple violets a week later, then Rhodora, Indian Pear, Bog Laurel, Northern Bush Honeysuckle, Bunchberry, False Solomon Seal, Foam flower, Trilliums, Twinflower, Black Chokeberry and a hundred other wild things in bloom. TRUEBRIT, where on earth are you that there are no wildflowers - a city?

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Janie
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 06:33 PM

Deborah, No wild flowers in Maine? That far north I don't know nuttin' but I bet the woods are full of spring ephemerals in Maine in --what--- May? Kendall would know. I know from West Virginia south, it won't be long at all before the woods are full of toothworts, spring beauties, trout lilies, mayapple, bloodroot, wood anemones, assorted violets and field pansies. I admit, few of these delicate flowers jump and shout "Hallelulah" becasue they are so small and close to the ground. but they are so lovely and delicate in their soft shades of blue, pink and palest yellow.

Do lupines grow wild in Maine?

Spring in North Carolina is an absolutely splendid time of year. It is in spring that I understand why they call this place 'the southern part of heaven.' Spring starts early here--much earlier than Maine, I guess!

Giok, Becca, et.al. May this spring be full of new green and soft days for you.

Janie

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 05:05 PM

Liz -- oh thank you.......The crocuses (croci?????) are just lovely......when 8 years has passed we will be headed over and I will PM you so we can get together for a cup of tea!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking forward to spring, how about you
From: Maryrrf
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 10:42 AM

We didn't have much of a winter here in Richmond, Virginia - but I still love the springtime! It's a beautiful time of year here - I plan to enjoy it!