We've had two glorious days of 50*plus. I've been outside with the leaf blower each day and have cleared all the iris beds. The crocus bed is sprouting like mad and a few of the earliest of daffodils have their noses up. It feels so good to be outside!!!
I love spring! Winter is something that has to be endured and then forgotten as quickly as possible. We've had the warmest, earliest spring ever and the trees are a riot of pink. The streets of pink flowering cherries look like rows of carnival cotton candy. The forsythia is in bloom and the magnolias are almost out. I have daffodils, grape hyacinths and hyacinths in full colour. BTW, to the Olympic watchers, Cypress Mtn. and Grouse Mtn, where the NBC broadcast was, had 25 inches of snow over the last two days! That's were snow belongs! It's Spring Break here so the skiiers and boarders are thrilled.
Speak for youself! LOL We got 6 inches the last few days. Yuck, spring won't be here for several more months! I do love it though, and both days of summer!!!LOL
Well, I can sure tell you I've had enough of winter... this has been the longest and coldest one down here in a VERY long time. I can't tell you how many mornings I had to scrap ice off my windshield before going into work... and my gardens all look pretty pitiful. It remains to be said whether or not some of the plants will survive, particularly the Bouganvillea and the Chinese Hibiscus. I think the Avocado tree still has life inside but will have to wait to see how hard it got hit.
Meggie, your area sounds so pretty with all the blooms and I sure did enjoy getting a little chance to see what the Olympic broadcasters would show.
Light, you have my complete sympathy for having had to tough it out through a cold winter. You guys took quite a hit this year. We are accustomed to it here of course. Speaking only for myself, I can enjoy the hibernation season as long as we aren't clobbered with abnormal mega tons of snow which was definitely the case this year. You feel the chill harder and your poor plants! Oh my, I do hope they've made it all right. Spring is always such a miracle here. To see everything come to life after all the freezing cold temps is astonishing every single time it happens. Even the peepers can freeze!!!!
We usually have some cold days (by our standards) right up until Easter. I have spent many Easter sunrise services huddled in a blanket but rejoice at every day that gets up to the 70's. That's nice sweater weather that we can all enjoy :) This week should be fairly nice but the evenings and mornings are still quite cold imo.
Ruffles, spring varies here in So GA, the azaleas bloom in Feb, the pollen falls off the pines in Mar and the trees burst out in April. Like Light said, we are accustomed to the chilly nights, and to wake up to 45-50 in the morning, and we endure the couple of days each year we wake up to 29, but this year. And now the wind/rain won't stop! Blustery.
Anyway, I love spring, but it doesn't love me. My back porch is covered in yellow dust, yellow is floating on the pond, cars are covered in yellow! ugh!! And the wind is whipping more of it into the air. My nose doesn't want to work anymore. BUT, the Azaleas are so pretty, and the Red Maples are full of buds just waiting the break out, and the wild wysteria is waking up with its vivid lavender. Saw my first Cardinal last week, and he was SO bright!
?FIRST cardinal? Where do they go? I've been feeding my resident pair all winter. ..... A few days ago I heard a robin chirping (not singing) but they aren't searching the lawns yet. We just had a lot of rain which cleared away all the old snow so I would expect to see them this week. The juncos are still here. They usually leave in early April. ........ Bird feeding side note: The birds love the suet feeder. A couple of weeks ago I made a fresh broccoli salad which calls for bacon. I trimmed away some of the excess fat and put it in the feeder. It is fat after all. The birds aren't going for it. Guess they don't care for the salt.
All of my azaleas survived the winter with no deer damage. I netted them last fall. It worked. YAY! There is one set of 3 bushes which may need to be relocated. They are very near a tree and don't look as good as they should. I think they may be competing with too many tree roots. Bummer. I really like having them in that location.
You think 45-50 is a chilly morning right now? I think it is warm if our day time high is 50+. LOL. We are going to hit 60+ on 4 different days this coming week. Get out the bikinis! Wheeeeeeee!
I've GOT to figure out a way to get rid of the voles in the day lily bed. Last winter they killed my favorite prize day lily and wiped out all of my crocosmia. There are vole holes in the day lily bed but it is too early to know what they've eaten during the winter. Grrrrrrrrrrr! (The corcosmia was replaced ASAP. The day lily could be replaced but, well, I'm embarassed to tell you how much I paid for it. The voles need to be GONE!)
