Thursday, 15 March 2012
Both thermometers reported that temps topped 80°F today; something’s not right (this is MARCH)! I found it just too hot to finish the raspberries…(lazy me).
So glad there’re leftovers in the fridge….
Monday, 12 March 2012
Lilacs in winter mode.
We basked in the sun again! Lilacs are early-bloomers, but there’s no sense of that today, even though the grass is greening and I saw a yard-full of delicate snowdrops on Saturday.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Wind. I grew up with it as a daily condition, at least seasonally. Maybe not always wind, but a breeze, surely. I guess it’s a component of the lake effect and a mid-continent thing. Not so much in the ATL area. Especially not the cutting winter wind we’ve had the last few days (and nights).
Today, I’m especially glad that the sun is glorious!—and counteracting the wind…at least as I look out at it from a warm house (exterior temp about 34°F)—teehee.
Contrast this to Wednesday’s view, on an overcast and grey day.
Friday, 9 March 2012
The usual hubbub soaked up our morning hours, then after lunch we headed out to do a few errands. We found the sun gorgeously warm, especially streaming in the windshield. Stepping out of the car was another story, when we were tormented by a biting wind.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Just the other day, I posted a photo of this same field, with lateral light—in the morning. Today’s is late-day light. And a more colorful moment….
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
The pondlet’s (yes, decaying) ice rim is yesterday’s news. Today’s temps wiped it out. What the stats from the garage do not show is that all day it’s been WINDY. Not breezy, not some wind. Flat out windy.
This means that Ma Nature has increased tomorrow’s chore list: branch patrol. A new one came down in the last hour from the shade tree out back. Just a small branch this time; the last one I remember was at least 10 inches across at the base.
The shedding tree is a small-thorned variety of Gleditsia triacanthos I know as a moraine locust. Here’s an interesting document dating to May 1953 announcing the moraine variety…. The Professor O’Rourke of Michigan State College mentioned on the second page (the article’s page 80) was a buddy of The Botanist’s.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Two observations: the light lingers m-u-c-h later in the evening, and 54—F+ at 6:45 pm—in Michigan (yes, southern, but…) and in early March. The latest prediction I heard for tomorrow is that the temp will top out at 64°F. Whoopeee!
Also, Sherry has identified the “Viking” glyph from the kayak we saw the other day: from prehistoric peoples by Lake Superior. Click here to read….
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Yesterday afternoon, a small group of Canada geese browsed their way downhill on the grassy area in the cornfield.
This morning the overnight snowfall covered the greenness.
Now, a couple of hours later, the snow is melting fast and the clouds and grey are battling for ascendance above.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
This is the power of weeds*; on this day, with temps reaching 51°F, one weed species (unknown to me) managed to bloom amongst the strawberry plants.
I couldn’t decide between the flower close-up (not a good photo) and the landscape (showing sky drama, but not a particularly good photo, either), for reasons that I cannot pin down. Hence, today is twofer day, and scale once again butts into my blog.
Not an hour after I snapped the flower photo, the sky became horizontally bisected; subsequently, the grey reigned and the sun abandoned us.
* Weeds are a concept, more than anything; they are culturally (socially) defined. They are plants, yes, and both species and individual specimens, that tend to grow where people don’t want them. Many people associate weeds with invaders of horticultural/farm plots, fields, and beds. But weeds can also be in your dooryard. So, I wonder if the concept of weeds originated with both sedentism and agriculture? Or just one of the two? Hmmm (meaning unanswerable).
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
The low winter light is on the rise, and I so enjoyed the morning sky over the white landscape. Warm temps today have reduced the snow load, but They tell us more is coming.