Still waiting for some sign of Spring

2»

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Spoke with a friend in Northern Alberta today. He said it started snowing on Sunday night and when it stopped on Tuesday morning they had 2 feet of new snow.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @torey Wow.

    As of noon today, part of the TransCanada is still closed. It has been this way since yesterday morning. Other highways are also closed. This will be due to the rain even before the snow. Roads are just not good here.

    My understanding is that more snow is coming.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @LaurieLovesLearning

    This seems like a particularly brutal spring. The rain is the worst of it, I think. Cause then it freezes right away.

    I am worried about some of my less hardy perennials that started to lose their snow cover just before this latest cold snap.

    Maybe there is a silver lining. People will be less inclined to go out.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @torey That is true. However, we usually went out anyway (but not in 2' of snow.) 😏 Backroads are usually our friend and driving them in these conditions is a fun adventure.

    Considering we have nowhere to drive to, it doesn't make any sense right now to go out, besides to & from work. My husband does snow clearing at work among other things on the snowiest & coldest of days.

    I am really feeling like I need to escape to somewhere. I am one who loves to travel (drive) places & explore. I get this strong feeling normally a minimum of at least twice a year, but rarely can go travel anyway anymore due to lack of funds. I don't know if the feeling is more intense right now for me or not.

    Considering everything, I will dutifully stay at home and dream of far away places. When this feeling struck in the past, I often would "travel" by looking at a map and exploring places along my paper "route," planning an imaginary trip. It is much like reading a recipe & tasting it as you read. I guess that I have a good imagination and crave hands on, all in, but in the absence of that, I try my best to make do.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    We have a freeze warning for tonight. It's raining at the moment and has on and off since mid-morning. Fruit trees are leafing out and the flower buds are there. Probably not good for them. The daffodils are about done, the hyacinths are still pretty good, the tulips tulip is blooming, and the forsythia is in bloom. In the hoop house the peas are about 3" tall, radishes about 2" tall, and the spinach is going to seed. I did manage to keep it producing through the winter so that experiment turned out well.

    Looks like we are in for some milder weather after tonight with partly sunny to mostly cloudy but in the upper 50's. Dandelions are looking nice and I saw a few plantains along the drive. Thornless blackberries are starting to leaf out too.

    @LaurieLovesLearning I've taken a virtual vacation or two on google maps. I find somewhere I've thought I'd like to go, drop the little guy down to street view and away I go. Unfortunately, the path least traveled hasn't been mapped by google.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @dottile46 Its too bad that Google hasn't. Those are often the best places. Although if they did, those places would get overwhelmed and most likely lose their beauty & allure.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    Purple Crocus, seeing tulip greens, and the yard grass is starting to green.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    This morning, in the drizzling rain, I noticed an iris bud on the south side of the house.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Update on waiting for spring....Weather forecast was showing rain starting tomorrow. Has been updated to rain and possibly snow as it cooled down in the evening...possibly 4-8" of snow. Not what we were hoping for at this point. It has been getting warmer during the day and snow has been shrinking, still several feet though. I guess if it stays warm enough to rain we will have a flooded yard, if it gets colder, we could have a lot more snow. Mother Nature has sure been fickle here the last few years. A few years back we had flooding, Last year was heat and fires, this year a ton of snow and possible rain which could cause flooding again, and the virus. One of these days the weather will cooperate and we will be able to start planting, and getting on with growing our food and medicines.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @vickeym I feel bad talking about my signs of spring now. I have seen those years where it seems like spring will never come. You get your hopes up and then Old Man Winter lets you know he hasn't faded into the background yet. We still have snow in our yard but it is disappearing. I was able to get out for Cottonwood buds the other day and while we were on our walk I found pasture sage starting to grow. There is a bit of green grass appearing on some of the bare hay fields. However, a few hundred feet higher than us, there is still 3 feet of snow. The high country has a higher than normal snowpack this year so it depends on how quickly things warm up as to whether or not there will be flooding. One of our local roads has had a collapse this spring. Not sure why. No water course in the area and it wasn't due to snow melt. Just a weak spot in the terrain, I guess. BC has had a few landslides over some of our major highways over the past couple of years, mostly due to the fires of 2017 & 2018 which took out most of the forests above the roads. Hope you manage to escape the flooding this year.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    It is cold here today & we have had snow off & on today. Kind of a bum day. I was hoping to do some things outside.

    We recently went through some of our call ducks eggs after cleaning their box out & giving them 2 new nesting rooms. Only 3 out of the 11 eggs weren't cracked die to freezing. We only kept the two freshest to put back into one nest. Hopefully they are okay.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin
    edited April 2020

    We've had a very warm spell for a few days. Highs nearing 20C (68F). Spring floods are upon us. Nothing over the roads in my immediate area but we are watching as the water levels are very high. There has been some flooding in surrounding areas and sandbagging is taking place.

    Some of my garden beds are warm enough to dig but there is still snow in the shaded spots in the lower end of the garden. Sore muscles in store for the next few days. That's a sure sign of spring!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited April 2020

    @Lisa K You are so fortunate! Swallows of all types have decreased here in alarming numbers. Many types of birds (and butterflies) are no longer seen in our area due to high spray volume. They are now listed as endangered.

    Lines used to be full just prior to fall migration, even 20 years ago. Now a person is lucky to see a couple pairs. We are hoping that our last pair returns this spring.

    @torey My garden is still frozen at 1 cm below the surface, but I am not sure how deep that frost layer is.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We are finally warm enough the snow is melting. It has rained for the last two days and forecast is for rain a couple more days at least. Snow is melting quickly. My driveway is a lake, the good news is that we got the snow before the ground froze very deep. So now it has thawed enough to let the snow melt start to drain. Hopefully once the rain stops it will drain faster than it fills up. lol With any luck I will be ready to start gardening in the next several weeks.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    We got snow again last night. 😬 I am positive ticks are out, but the snow...it just keeps reminding us that it is a thing. It has been a relatively cold spring this year. One day we will get a break.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    No snow for us but flooding has started here. Highway 97 which is the main artery north and south through our province (road to Alaska for our southern neighbours), had a foot of water running over it last night as culverts were unable to handle the amount of run off. Single lane traffic this morning. At least one home owner has water in his back yard and basement. There is flooding in at least 2 other locations on the highway north of us.

    @LaurieLovesLearning Yes, Ticks! They are the worst I have ever seen. When we were out a couple of weeks ago picking cottonwood buds, we came home covered in them. It is an area that is usually heavily infested with ticks but never seen them like this. We found one on the cat two days ago and we have never seen ticks on us or our animals in our yard before. So we are checking each other every time we go out where we are walking in the long grass. Haven't been able to burn the grass as fire restrictions went on a few days ago. Before that it was too wet to burn.

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning My goodness. And I’m over here whining about temps in the 40s.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @burekcrew86 It did melt and it did get warmer, but it was a pretty good layer. The cold at night is also enough to throw the chickens off their lay cycle a bit too.

    We are now within a manageable amount of eggs...for now.