Harbingers of Spring

[Bamaboots]

The blueberry bushes behind the house are covered with blooms and the blooms are covered with bees pollinating their bee-hinds off.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Still in the 40s here atop my mountain today. No new grass, no open buds on the trees, no robins. The last of the snow and ice just melted in the last couple of days. We're having a VERY delayed spring in the Mid-Hudson Valley this year!

 

[LizzieMaine]

My Stars of Bethlehem are finally coming up -- but they usually first appear in February!

 

[Renault]

Hummingbirds got here three weeks ago, so the feeders went out!!!! I have my morning coffee with three little fellows who have their breakfast right outside my kitchen window!!!! I love these little guys! Yesterday there was a whole passle fighting around the feeder in the yard!

 

[DecoDame]

Forsythia in bloom, daffodils up, grass actually growing not just greening (sadly, first lawn mower motor heard today too), lilac and bridal wreath and rose bushes etc all budding their leaves.

*sigh* I'm going back outside and work in the garden as much as I can this sunny weekend.

 

[Stearmen]

One nice thing about all our spring rain and hail, my hair is super soft! We have been in drought so many years, i forgot how good just a little rain water is for hair.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The ultimate Harbinger of Spring: Red Sox fans are already saying "Wait 'til Next Year."

 

[Fading Fast]

As many of you know (from the Vintage Home thread), my girlfriend and I recently bought an apartment in a 1927 Coop apartment building in NYC. The other day, we took this shot out of a bedroom window as, when we bought the apartment, we had no idea a wisteria plant would bloom and be visible out there (quite a nice harbinger of Spring for us).

If you are familiar at all with NYC, the residential sections are pretty crowded with buildings and not plants, trees, etc., so it was quite a pleasant surprise to see this guy popping up. Plants / trees sometimes show an indomitable will to grow in the most difficult of places.

The second photo is from Central Park and I just thought it was a nice one to share.



From Central Park

 

[St. Louis]

Beautiful! Black and white tulips, what a great idea.

I'm thrilled to pieces that my tiny red climbing roses, which I believe are original to the house (1929) have bloomed this year -- only the second time since I moved in here 11 years ago! Earlier this year I gave them a severe pruning and crossed my fingers. The poor little things were planted right in the middle of a thick layer of irises. I really have no idea why anyone would shove a tiny climbing rose into the middle of a bunch of irises, but that's a common mistake among beginning gardeners (cramming plants too close together without anticipating their eventual growth.)

Anyway, I'm so happy to see these lovely old climbers come back to life.

 

[Fading Fast]

St Louis - the roses look beautiful (glad they came back) as does what I can see of your charming house. If you haven't already, you might treat us with some posts of it in the "Show Us Your Vintage House Thread." Also, the tulips - while they look black in the photo - are a very deep purple. But I like your idea of a black and white tulip display - very flower noir.

 

[St. Louis]

What a nice thing to say! I did post some images of my living room a while back, but the thread may be a bit lost now a couple of years later. I'll see if I can take some new ones. I'd have to dust first ... and I'd have to do something about the cat hair!

 

[Fading Fast]

What a nice thing to say! I did post some images of my living room a while back, but the thread may be a bit lost now a couple of years later. I'll see if I can take some new ones. I'd have to dust first ... and I'd have to do something about the cat hair!

You are talking to someone who "baby sits" an English Springer Spaniel all week. At minimum, we vacuum twice a week, wet mop once, dust no-less-than every other week and do other periodic fur-recution clean up and fur still pops up here and there.

 

[Stearmen]

Man, did we get hit with a severe case of spring yesterday! At least seven tornadoes touched down. One hit the towns of Berthoud and Simla. Fortunately, no injuries or deaths were reported. I do feel for those that lost their homes! Some of them were down for over 20 minutes, very unusual for Colorado. We are on the edge of Tornado Alley, but rarely get this many in one day. More bad weather tonight, hopefully just rain. [video=youtube;xApr2qMWDXM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xApr2qMWDXM[/video]

 

[GHT]

Global warming? It's nearly Christmas and here, in Western Europe, it is so warm that you can see people out Christmas shopping in short sleeves. Not only do we seemed to have bypassed winter with spring flowers blooming and young lambs in the fields, we seemed to have had a late and elongated Autumn. The trees took forever to shed their leaves.
Is it a worry? Well much as I like the warmer weather, a cold snap is also important, if only to kill off the bugs. It should be a worry I suppose but when my utility bills are only a quarter of what they were in previous winters, it takes a lot to wish it was colder.
To put our temperature into perspective, London shares a line of latitude with Calgary, where the temperature is just 1% F or -16%C.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Global warming? It's nearly Christmas and here, in Western Europe, it is so warm that you can see people out Christmas shopping in short sleeves. Not only do we seemed to have bypassed winter with spring flowers blooming and young lambs in the fields, we seemed to have had a late and elongated Autumn. The trees took forever to shed their leaves.
Is it a worry? Well much as I like the warmer weather, a cold snap is also important, if only to kill off the bugs. It should be a worry I suppose but when my utility bills are only a quarter of what they were in previous winters, it takes a lot to wish it was colder.
To put our temperature into perspective, London shares a line of latitude with Calgary, where the temperature is just 1% F or -16%C.

Before I moved here from London I might have agreed with you. But living on the western tip of the UK four miles inland from the Irish Sea we have had nothing but storms and rain since the start of October. We normally get gales at this time of the year or a bit earlier. But not one after the other with hardly a gap between them, and not storm force winds so often. I think there have been three of four dry days in that time and I for one am getting sick of the wind howling and the rain coming down almost horizontally. I live on high ground but there has been flooding nearby and plenty further north.

The thing about warming a system is that the more heat put into it will result in more energy coming out of it. So just as predicted all those years ago the world is becoming a stormier place; and while we are getting milder wetter windier weather here in other parts of the world they are getting increasing severe droughts….

 

[Lean'n'mean]

where the temperature is just 1% F or -16%C.

Whether you measure you tempertures in degrees or percentages, it is indeed unseasonably warm in many parts of Europe. I don't think it's anything to worry about just yet though, as it's due warm air sucked from North Africa by an anticyclone, the fact that there are more anticyclones that form now & that they last longer, may be something to worry about. the current mild spell is due to last at least until Christmas & maybe beyond..................on second thoughts, there may be reasons for concern.

About saving money on heating.......the energy companies usually find ways of recuperating the lost revenue such as putting up prices in spring ....thanks to their shenanigans I find that during mild winters we don't actually save money, we just avoid spending more.

 

[Smithy]

We have a foot of snow and it's very nearly polar night (so the sun doesn't rise above the horizon)...spring seems unsurprisingly a very long way off, not that I'm complaining, I like winter.

This thread reminded me how I miss the original OP of this thread, Carter. One of the nicest fellows to have ever frequented these parts. A very real shame he's not around here anymore.

 

[Stearmen]

Spring?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's forty-seven degrees this morning. At 44.1094° N, 69.1147° W. On the eighteenth of December. Not only do we not have a lick of snow here, the ground isn't even frozen yet. And even better, fuel oil hasn't been this cheap since 2005, so it isn't even cold in the house.

I don't know if you'd call that spring, but it sure ain't winter. Not that I'm complaining.

 

[hatsRme]

Like the internet, Lizzie, Al Gore did it!!