FIRST CROCUS OPENED!

BREAKING NEWS!

Just picked this year’s first 3 daffodils… they are slowly unfolding in the kitchen window sunshine, and 2 purple crocus were smiling at me when I took the trash out today.

The birds have been fussing and nesting… courtship is going on strong as they feed each other at the feeders.

Over an inch or rain yesterday. So glad it wasn’t snow.

Pictures later in the week when I have more time!

But just had to celebrate!

AN IMPOSSUMBLY LONG WINTER

Where is Spring, you say! Here we have daffodils, pansies, even the forsythia is opening… the late camellias are starting and I swear I saw a little color on a couple early azaleas. I did! But if you listened to that dumb groundhog up in Philadelphia, well, I am sure you must be disappointed. You can see a picture of this liar on this blog: http://thefrogandpenguinn.blogspot.com/2013/03/dont-shoot-piano-player.html.

Very possumly Phil should be retired – a suggestion that he can’t refuse, kind of retirement… I, the Onley Proud member of the Possum Prognosticator’s Club, President of Possum Patrol (always on the lookout for lying muskrats), and possumly the most accurate Predictor of a Pussumly early spring… I got laughed at, guffawed at even, when I said Spring would indeed be late this year. HA! But who gets the last chortle? MOI! As I curl up all warm and toasty in my heated nest down the street from those nasty muskrats, snug but not smug… Oh, no, not me… I remember the disbelief when I saw MY shadow and ran for dear life back into my snugness on the carport Pledging not to come back out until spring really arrives… or some delicious cat food gets placed in the dish a couple feet outside my door. Whichever comes first. We possums may get blinded easily by headlights but we’re not fools! My human CO (Can Opener) still has her snow shovel out just a few feet on the other side of the heated water dish. She even has a de-icer in the ground level birdbath, yes indeedy.

But I digress… Just how accurate is that dumb groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil? According to StormFax Weather Almanac, Phil has been right 39 percent of the time since 1887. It is amazing that he still has a job. I, on the other hand can never be replaced. Not only is my Prediction record Perfect, but where else can you find an animal this cute who eats copperheads for snacks, catches mice and rats and all sorts of buglies and does NOT ever get rabies? Can you beat that with a stick? Impossumble. 

In spite of all the wet weather we have had here, and I do mean wet – I mean, look at the yard! In the summertime this is where grass gets cut! We would need pontoons on the mower to get thru here! Or, maybe we could sell it to some unsuspecting Yankee as waterfront property, huh? No?

My human will tell you, “It always snows on the daffodils.” I bet you can check back to March of each year and find a picture of some bright yellow beauties bowed over with a layer of snow. My human also says, “Count your Cards,” to see how long winter will last. Translation: the more Cardinals at your feeders, the longer the winter. Unh huh, check it out. I taught her all these things. I did. She is not as impossumble as most humans. I am right Proud of her. Pay attention to Nature I told her. The more berries, the colder the winter.  Then there is the nutty predictor – the more nuts, the worse the winter will be, or the thicker shells, or the fatter… you name it.  Whatever. They are talking about edible nuts, aren’t they? Not humans… most of them are nuts, it seems. The point is, it is 4 days after the vernal equinox, and if you look real hard, it is snowing. Either that or these trees got dandruff!

(If you were a possum you would find that hairlarious!)

OK, so it is only 5 snowflakes an hour right now. Hang on. Just wait! You’ll see!

WINTER? SPRING? SUMMER?

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES! This was taken this time last year... remember what a cold winter we had last year? Record snow fall for the Eastern Shore. Froze our butts off! This year, I am grateful to say, winter passed us by! I know my friends in Vermont are saying the same thing, as some of them spent the winter in tipis while rebuilding their homes, bridges, barns, and shops. Even they have had very little snow and quite mild temps. Our mild temps hit an extreme this past week. It was 83 here on Thursday. Tank top weather! Red Emperor is in full bloom. This bush is over 10 feet tall and has a diameter of 8 feet. It is so loaded with blooms this year. Isn't it beautiful? The daisies have put out their leaves, but they won't bloom until Oct... But the azaleas will bloom soon.Punk could be found sleeping in the morning sun... by afternoon, he was in a shady spot under a bush. Pink Perfection blooms this time of year. Last year we had snow on the camellias, this year the only white on the ground IS the camellias! (or daffodils, or pansies...). I actually cut some grass (and a lot of weeds) this past week. The forsythia is in bloom as are the fruit trees. The peas are up and I have onions up about an inch! How has your winter been?

OH, MY ACHING BACK!

WELL FOLKS, the garden is started. The peas ( first planting) are in the ground and their climbing strings are up. Most of the onions are in the ground... got a few left, but ran out of space. So I will figure out another place next week. I wanted to buy some new potting soil, but it was raining so hard yesterday, I gave up on that idea. We got an inch and a half. Like most garden centers, even WalMart, the potting soil is kept outside. If it rains, that entire area is getting wet. Seems rather stupid to me. It's during a good rain that folks want to go shopping, but all the tools, bags of soil, fertilizers, etc are out in the rain. dumb. Good thing the cat food is under the roof! LOL! The daffodils are beautiful, the forsythia has started to open. Today was not only a T-shirt day, it was a sleeveless T-shirt day! Temps in the 70s again. The house smells so nice with fresh air from open windows and vases of daffodils. The feeders are filled as the little guys are arriving here in droves on their way north. And I can barely walk. sigh. The carport is clean... as my little neighbor would say, I "blow dried" it. Potting bench is cleaned off and ready for use. Garden tools are cleaned and ready to go. John (Deere) is gassed up. Covers are off the Adirondacks. Watch and see it snow!
OK, heading to the recliner and I am not moving for a while.

FIRST GARDEN UPDATE FOR 2012

FIRST GARDEN UPDATE FOR THE YEAR!!!! Can you imagine? At 72 degrees today, I could not stand it any longer... I have cleaned out the Pea Patch. Frank pounded in a couple metal fence posts for me and the strings are up. I am tired of rotting wood posts, and amazingly the metal posts cost less than wood when you figure they won't have to be replaced in 2 years. But best of all, the weeds are pulled (mostly turnip greens) and the onion bed is clean and ready for the onion sets I bought last week. Sweets. Then, since I was already in the same area, I cleaned up the small asparagus bed and the strawberry patch. Figured I might as well, I will be too "stove-up" tomorrow to do it anyway, plus, I was already sitting on the ground (not intentionally) so I might as well keep pulling. Once I managed to get up, I was not going back down... 'course, the trick was getting back up!

It was, or is, difficult to remember it is February. The daffodils are blooming. The forsythia is showing color. The roses have their baby leaves... sigh.
The birds are starting to make their nesting sounds... seeing and hearing robins don't mean much. I have a small flock that winter here. They have had an easy winter. The snow geese are on the move again - huge flocks have been flying over. When I say huge, I am talking thousands Really. They make so much noise, it is easy to keep track of them. The ponds are snow white, some of the fields are white... I am not a farmer, so I think it is beautiful. I understand not everyone feels this way. But they don't eat any of my crops. If I had to worry about that, one goose would clean up my garden in short order! But, It feeds us... and I still find it exciting to go out in the yard and pick something I am going to eat for lunch or dinner... or pick berries for my cereal. No chemicals, not even any chemical fertilizers, and my cow manure comes from field grazed cows... remember? Like they used to do? Cows in the pasture? What a novel idea. Home grown food. Not crap from China or some other country with worse rules than we have, and folks, we have bad rules when you consider GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, and tons of chemical fertilizers. If you are close to my age, you will have noticed food just doesn't taste like you remember it from when you were a kid, does it? Even many of the tomatoes from farm markets taste like cardboard these days. Why? They have been genetically modified so they look prettier, grow bigger, ripen faster... Didja ever notice cherry tomatoes are sweeter than regular tomatoes? The goal is not to take all that flavor and stretch it into a huge tomato, so it is sweeter. Now the big thing is grape tomatoes. They grow fast, are harvested in weeks, and have tough skins so they can stand rough treatment without bruising. But how do they taste to you? Lots of chemicals in those tiny red things.

I am keeping my eye on the weather forecast. Mid 70s tomorrow, but probably rain. If I can move and it doesn't rain, I will get another area ready. Then Sunday, highs in the mid 40s.