We’ve had a tougher winter than usual hereabouts – two foot-and-a-half-of-snow storms about a week apart, and since it’s been cold throughout, there are still mountains of snow (much of it now icy) everywhere. Not fun, and we’re all getting fairly tired of it.
As I’m sitting here at the computer, though, a splotch of orange out the window just caught my eye – a robin, looking skeptically at my snow-covered yard.
Be skeptical all you want, little buddy, but please stick around … I need the promise that spring is coming.
Despite getting pounded with snow the other day and some serious cold around the start of the new year, we’ve fared pretty well. Today two people mentioned how much it feels like spring. And it’s no longer dark when I leave work.
I don’t know about yours but my stupid daffodils are starting to come up through the 3 - 4 inches of snow that hasn’t melted yet. I haven’t seen a robin yet, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Back when I was a kid in New England (in the 1960s, a period of colder-than-normal winters), I found that the third week in February was the one to watch out for. At some point, usually during that week, there would come a moment at which I felt like I couldn’t stand ONE MORE DAY of winter… and I couldn’t even console myself by saying “Well, this time next week it’ll be March”.
I feel like we’re all going to DIE. The next Ice Age is coming and we’ll never get out of it. But then I feel like this every winter.
Hooray little robin! Do your stuff!
And no, we don’t get 100 degree + weather but we only get three months of summer and last week it literally rained through the month of June so we didn’t even get that much…then it went directly to 97% humidity. Not happy.
Granted, my winter consists of a handful of frosty mornings, temps during the day of 60-75 degrees, and lots of gentle soaking rain. Hard to complain in the winter. Easy to complain in the summer.
I’m still kind of waiting for winter! It’s been cold, but very little snow - it’s downright bizarre to see the streets to clean (well, covered in the dog shit that hadn’t been picked up back when there was a little bit of snow) and being able to see the grass at this time of year kind of creeps me out. We’ve only had two major snow removals, and I think they were before the New Year. The city is actually in the black in terms of snow operations!
I’m going to a little winter resort next week, north of Montreal, and I hope there’s snow, because I want to snowshoe and cross country ski and I hope the river is frozen so we can skate!
Once I come back, though, then spring can finally come, though I’m not keeping my hopes up. I never believe the winter is over until at least mid April!
No robins here yet, and still a lot of snow, but the sun is out, and at lunch I noticed it was distinctly brighter, as opposed to the washed-out slanting light that we get near the solstice. Slowly the sun returns to the north.
Heck, I saw a sparrow yesterday and got excited. We’ve had snow on the ground since December 1, one storm after another – 60 or 70 inches, last I heard.
I won’t relax until April. The Iowa state girls’ basketball tournament usually coincides with a blizzard.
It can’t happen soon enough to suit me. Every winter, it seems to depress me a little more. The snow last week was very pretty, though. That was the first time I’ve seen that much snow.
But, I long to feel a little warmth from the sun on my skin.
It was 63 at my home in NW Oregon today. My flowering qince are about to burst into pink blooms, a couple are already open. I am hanging up the hummingbird feeder in the morning because the hummingbirds (mostly Rufus) are here the day the quince blooms.
There may be a snow shower later in the Spring, certainly hail, and another foot or 2 of rain, but Winter has had it’s last day here.
My back yard is quite sheltered and gets tons of afternoon sun - on a sunny day, it’s quite pleasant to sit out there in the sun even at this time of year. Nothing like a little cool weather basking.
I’m in Portland OR. Winter? What winter? We had ONE snowfall, it was gone the next day. It’s been 50 degrees and rainy since October. On sunny days it feels like spring, even a month ago. I have hops, dillweed and onions coming up already.
Oh yea I heard some of you had a spattering of snow these last few weeks. Wonder what that’s like.
