Spring, glorious spring!

Spring has apparently sprung. No snow left here at 4000ft / 1200m in the central Sierra Nevadas. Today was good for tees-and-shorts walking through the cedar forest. Daffodils bloom and deer don't eat them. Wild turkeys wander through our meadow. The drought proceeds.
 
Spring? Hell, autumn only lasted about two weeks at the end February and we went right back into summer. HM and I are going to Portland after Easter. Maybe spring went there.
 


The race is on; the daffodils are well out of the ground and the buds are on the forsythia— which will bloom first:
the daffodils or the forsythia?



640px-Narcissus-closeup.jpg




640px-Forsythia_flower.JPG




 
We'll know it's springtime here at the Daffodil Festival over on Daffodil Hill, when zillions of laggards, er I mean deep-pocketed visitors, will motor up from the Sacramento-Stockton area to get their daffo-fill. Not right now though -- a wintry mix of cold wet stuff is precipitating upon us.
 
I look out on the deck and there's a freshly laid, brand spanking new coat of snow. Must be 6" so far. Neither dog will take the step. And another 3-4 coming, per the news woman. Ugh!
 
Spring still sucks.

Midwinter sucks worse. So does midsummer. Around here, anyway. Luckily, no midwinter this year, no debilitating blizzards at my elevation. Still, too muchwoodsmoke. But midsummer promises the usual cooking smoggy dehydrating days. Spring is about the best season here. It only really started a couple days ago -- and it's still winter just 1000 ft higher.
 


Today is this year's "Crocus Day" (the date I sight the spring's first bloom).

It's almost a month late. It's been a hellacious winter.



320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg

320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg

320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg
320px-Crocus_longiflorus5.jpg



 
We haven't had a winter for several years and I've had it. This weekend I'm buying a house in Portland!
 
We've 'enjoyed' bright but cool weather for a few days and the crocuses are out in splendour. My lawn is now mowed, feed and fertiliser on the lawn & garden, and I've trimmed the roses.
I can now sit back to await next years spring. . . .
 
We haven't got any buds or flowers yet, but the piles of snow next to driveways are gone, and the huge mountains of snow in the corners of parking lots are brown crusty lumps.

The river that runs past town was full of fresh snowmobile tracks three weeks ago, and now is nearly ice free. I was down there today and watched a thin flow slowly tip over the barrier dam at the town park. Not ever spectacular, it seems like winter left with a whimper this year.

Of course we still have to watch out. It's close to freezing at night, and forecast to dip below freezing next week at night. A few years ago it was warm and nice, then in May we got ten inches of wet heavy snow. It was gone in a few days, along with some trees and a lot of large branches.

I'm ready for spring, but then the season of mud, which is just passing, is one season I could do without.
 
Snow melted off several weeks ago here at 4000ft / 1200m in the central Sierra Nevadas but we still have snowpack above 8000ft. Azaleas are blooming in our yard. If we weren't still recovering from our local viral bronchitis epidemic, we'd be out in the warm cloudy sunshine tending the meadow and manicuring the forest. The local bear has not yet emerged from hibernation; no pumas have bothered the in-laws yet. That'll happen soon enough.
 
Following a warm day or two, we are now advised to stock up on usefuls and not to put away the winter woollies, because we can expect some fierce cold from the north east of EU & Siberia.
It was ever thus. . . .
 
The sky is a beautiful bright blue; the sun is shining; and for the first time in months, possibly years, at least it seems that long, the ground, although very, very soggy, is free from snow, ice and the detritus from that inappropriately named "wintry mix". I'll be hanging bed linens outside this morning. :cathappy:
 
The sky is a beautiful bright blue; the sun is shining; and for the first time in months, possibly years, at least it seems that long, the ground, although very, very soggy, is free from snow, ice and the detritus from that inappropriately named "wintry mix". I'll be hanging bed linens outside this morning. :cathappy:

Somehow I have a problem with the good witch hanging out linens like the rest of us.
Would you please sprinkle a bit of your fairy dust over this corner of the UK and ease this cold ?
 
Back
Top