March Lion & Lamb

Well, March did come in like a lion, but it seems to be going out pretty lamb like.  Here are some photos from March 2nd.

 

  

And here are some from today.  A bit of a difference, wouldn't you say?

 

Rule here is once something blooms I have to keep something blooming until the end of October. Sometimes a challenge, but not always. It’s usually the snowdrops that bloom first, but this year it’s crocuses.

March 8th 2014, 2013 and 2012

2014  (after 2 or 3 days of melting...)

2013

2012

Winter Just Keeps on Coming!

We can't seem to shake snow and cold this year.  The yard has been snow covered since early December, with no end in sight.  Even though the temps may rise above freezing for a few days this week, lows are projected to go below zero for three days again over the weekend and early next week.

The photo at left is of a plant stand that we left out over the winter.  It is at least a foot from the bottom to the level that is just being met by the snow.  And this is right next to the house where the snow is much less deep than elsewhere, as well as before the 5 or 6 inches we are projected to get today.  












We're working to keep the pond open in one small spot, but the combination of very cold temps and deep snow is making that really difficult.  Had to buy a new heater, and even that is having trouble keeping up.  Add the fact that they say the frost is VERY deep this year, I'm not sure we will have any fish in the spring to feed the Heron.






If you take a look at the snow on top and below the bench in the gazebo you can get an idea of how deep it is everywhere.  I walked around the yard the other day to check on things and it was a major effort just to get out to the creek and back.  At least 2 feet of snow in some places. 

A Very Different Kind of Winter From Last Year

 Note the photos below from last March 8th.  Now here are a few from yesterday in Sunnyview Gardens, and there is more snow falling right now.  I'm ready for winter to leave, but it appears it will be here for awhile.

Clean New Snow

A light snow overnight has made everything pretty and white again.  Still not really much on the ground, but at least it looks like winter.  The birds are everywhere lately.  Lin next door gave me her peanut butter suet recipe, and we made a couple of birch log suet holders.  Many different birds seem to like them a lot, including the chickadees, a nuthatch, and woodpeckers. 

 

 

The favorite suet feeder in the yard seems to be the ceramic feeder in the gazebo.  It’s never worked well with seeds, because the holes are too large.  But stuffed with suet it attracts all types.  Looks pretty gross, but birds do seem to love it.

 

A group of English Sparrows has taken over one of the feeders, and they are also occupying the forsythia bush near the deck.  Don’t really want a sparrow tree in the yard, so I may discourage them. 

 

The new snow was pretty for sure.  I don’t love winter, and I don’t love snow.  But if I’ve got to put up with winter I would like some of the beauty of snow, especially in January. 

  

 

 

The gargoyle is still guarding the hole in the pond created by the aerator and sometimes the heater.  I haven’t been able to see the fish for awhile since the snow covered the ice over most of the pond.  Hope they are hanging on.  Looking forward to the melt in another month or two. 

 

Peanut Butter Suet Recipe:

Melt ½ pound Lard

Stir in 1 cup chunky Peanut Butter (or creamy PB and fine ground peanuts)

Add 2 cups yellow corn meal

2 cups quick oats

¾ cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

Store in Refrigerator or garage in winter.

January 9th? Seriously?

This winter has been amazing for sure.  We’ve had a little snow here and there, but it hasn’t stuck around for longer than a few days each time. 

Today the afternoon temperature is approaching 45 degrees.  It looks and feels like March, and its only the middle of January.  I’m sure that we will see some colder days in the coming weeks, but I’ll take this for as long as it goes.

Here are photos of the yard, including the remains of the willow tree that we had cut down in early December. They came to do it before the ground froze completely, so we will have work to do in the spring cleaning up. I hope the ruts work themselves out some before then. I think it will be nice to have that tree gone. Beautiful and dramatic as it was, it was messy for sure.

 

And the windstorm in early September really bent many of the branches and it was feeling dangerous to walk under there. I think we’ll also appreciate the earlier light on the vegetable garden, and the tree roots won’t be sucking up all of the nutrients we put out there.

The fish in the pond mostly hang around on the bottom, but come up to look around in the heat of the day.  There are so many of them that I’m afraid the air hose we have going may not be enough to sustain them if the pond freezes over more than it has.  But so far all are well. 

Spring!

OK, maybe not quite yet.  But it is in the wings, just waiting.  Even though we have had snowfall after snowfall, I believe that Winter is about to loose its hold on us.  For a variety of reasons.
The light is stronger in the afternoon for sure.  Punxsutawney Phil,  the most frequently cited groundhog in the prediction business, did not see his shadow this morning and thus predicted an early spring.  And yesterday, when we tried to move the snow away from the pond heater we found at least a three square foot opening in the pond.  Not sure why that happened, probably because the heater was buried under snow that acted as a blanket of sorts.  But it felt good.
The number of birds in the yard has been nothing short of amazing.  Must be 20 or 30 Goldfinches, as many House Finches.  A band of Chickadees checks in several times a day.  Quite a few Juncos, and many sparrows.  The Cardinals are frequent visitors to the feeders – not as many as in summer, but at least one pair is a regular.  I’ve seen two Nuthatches pecking their way down the trunk of the library honey locust a couple of times.   They collectively go through the contents of our five feeders in short order, which keeps Bill out in the yard filling them every other day or so.  I put out some suet, hoping to attract the woodpeckers that I hear occasionally to come closer, but haven’t been successful so far.
In the basement, the geraniums that have been hanging in the cold room are ready to be sliced up into cuttings and rooted for spring planting.  I hope that works better this year than last.  Our neighbors say that we start too late usually, and they do their rooting in the first week of February.  So that will be tomorrow’s assignment. 
There are also many other plants in the lighted basement plant stand that have been holding their own since I saved them last fall from the killing frost.  Mostly from cuttings, but some from the severely cut back mother plant, they have grown nicely over the winter with little attention.  Now is the time to cut them back again, and start thinking about hardening them off to make the transition to outside in a few months. 
Only three plants have survived from the Rex Begonia leaf cuttings I took.  I had over 15 plants a year ago, but they had all come down with some sort of fungal infection which no amount of anti-fungal spraying could cure.  They struggled over the summer, but never really recovered.  I took 7 or 8 leaf cuttings in fall and really immersed them in antifungal treatment before trying to root them.  They all rooted, but only three survived the transplant into individual pots.  I think I finally understand why these are so expensive.  I’ve always had such great luck with them until now. but when they go they go fast.

Snow Again

Just got another 5 or six inches of snow, to cover the dirty piles that had been melting for several weeks.  Looks beautiful again outside.  It is mid-February, though, and it would be nice to start seeing things move toward spring.  The days are getting longer for sure, it was still light at 5:30 last night.  And the stronger sun clears the deck in short order.

The aerator and small heater are easily keeping up with the cold and snow, maintaining a patch of open water that should allow the fish to survive the winter outside.  Will be interesting to see if they regain their boldness that they lost after the encounter with the heron last fall.

This post was made as a demonstration for the Torch Club meeting tonight.

Thought this was supposed to be an "El Niño" Winter

Catchup post (preparing for a New Year's Resolution to start blogging again..): 

Maybe I just jumped to the conclusion that warmer temps would mean less snow.    But, so far that is not the case.  There was no snow at all until after Thanksgiving.  But then, on December 9th we got hit with about 15 inches of wet, heavy stuff.  It weighted down the white cedars and covered everything with a white blanket.  branches bowed down on nearly every tree, the pond aerator had a hard time keeping a spot open, and we had to turn on the small heater.   It was beautiful at first for sure.  The Pagoda Dogwood is particularly nice with its structure outline by the contrast between branches and the snow. 

The thick blanket may well keep the frost shallow this year, especially if we don't get a total melt down before really cold weather. 

And, looking now at the NOAA site about El Niño predictions, I find that around here for the next month or so we have "equal chances" of above and below normal temps and precipitation.  So far this year we've certainly had a mix of warm, cold, dry, wet.  What might come next?

Today, on Christmas, it is raining and 37 degrees in Green Bay where I'm staying with my Dad.  Supposed to get cold tonight, and the rain will likely change to snow before its all over. 

A Nice Warm-up and Melt-down

   It has risen above freezing for the last several days, and is likely to continue doing so for several more.  Might even hit 50 degrees tomorrow.  It is hard to walk around the yard, as the snow has become wet and soft, but it is still deep in most places.  The paths we use frequently are beaten down so we can walk on top of them, but every now and then you break through and sink down to the ground.  Yesterday I lost a boot in the snow while checking out the creek. 

It has been beautifully sunny and gentle.  We even went out for a bike ride Saturday.  The buds are swelling on the lilacs and a few other bushes, and the creek is beginning to flow a little. 

Rabbit damage continues to grow.  The Bridal Wreath Spirea will likely have to be cut back to the ground in spring, so there may not be flowers this year.  It will be fine, though in the long run.  The Cooper's Hawk is around daily, but seems not to be reducing the number of rabbits or squirrels much. 

There are so many finches and chickadees and juncos around the feeders that it sometimes seems to be just churning with life. 

It Just Stays Cold and White

Winter seems to have such a stranglehold on the area this year.  We haven't really even had a significant meltoff in over a month and a half, and they say January is the coldest we've seen in quite some time.  It was below zero again this morning, even though yesterday it got up into the 20's and I was able to scrape the inch of ice off of most of the driveway finally. 

Rabbit damage is terrible - some things will be chewed down to the ground.  The little Weigala that is planted near the gazebo is just a couple of stems now - now sure how long that will take to come back.  Seems like we will have to start putting more protection in place in the late fall from  now on if there's going to be this much snow every year. 

The rabbit and squirrel "highways" are deepening, since we haven't gotten a lot of  new snow in the last several weeks.  You can really see their routes.   I also found a bit of the nesting material that had fallen from a squirrel nest that's up in the willow tree.  I imagine they will manage to stay warm anyway - probably will cut more stuff from my plants.

Wednesday night I heard the sump pump downstairs run for the first time in quite awhile, and I feared that it wouldn't make it out to the creek.  But yesterday I walked over to the outlet and found that it was, indeed, still open.  That will be good if ever things really do start to melt.  And since I was out, I took a few more shots of things that are still beautiful  The colors are a bit monotonous this time of year, but some form and structure still survives.  

 

Birds are Everywhere

Walking out on the deck today I was instantly in the midst of an overwhelming cacophony of birds.  Finches and Chickadees and Juncos and Cardinals, Crows and Mourning Doves and a couple of Sparrows.  They were everywhere.  Flying in and out of the Arbor Vitae (White Cedar) shrubs and trees, consuming almost all of the birdseed in our feeders and the neighbor's, coming often to the heated water dish we put out for them. 

During the cold weather that we have been having lately, the water dish couldn't keep the water unfrozen over night.  It did manage to melt a couple of small holes in the middle of the day, and the birds appreciated it.  Our new cat Grace had a very hard time controlling herself while watching them.  She gets very excited looking out of the windows, though she never really makes a break for an open door.  Pretty sure she was an indoor cat who must have either escaped or been abandoned before we found her. 

Somehow Things Survive

It has been a harsh winter so far.  Almost the all time highest snowfall for any month ever fell in December.  If we get just "average" snowfall for the rest of the season we will have the third highest annual snowfall in recorded history.  The bird feeders are emptied in very short time, and Bill fills them regularly.  I even did it once this week, as they were more depleted than normal by Thursday and there is severely cold weather coming. 

I find it interesting that no one seems to have much interest in the brightly colored berries of the Viburnum bushes that are so plentiful along the creek.  These bushes are often billed as having berries that are tempting to birds.  But obviously not all that tempting when compared to fresh sunflower and thistle seeds. 

In the morning, the birds generally come to the feeders in d roves just after sunrise on days when the temperature is above 10 degrees or so.  Huge numbers of goldfinches, lots of house finches, chickadees and juncos, 5 or 10 mourning doves, and two pairs of cardinals are the regulars.  Some sparrows are also around, and there could be others I'm not picking out.  Occasionally a small woodpecker makes its way up the honey locust tree nearby.

Rabbits and squirrels are plentiful also.  There are many tracks and trails through the yard, mainly running from the willow/ash edge to the "bird" feeders and back.  Evidence that I should have protected some of the shrubs is clear.  Maybe I'll try to get out and do that this weekend, though it could be too late to save the "Burning Bush" Euonymous near the feeders. 

Ice is not Nice

My retirement party was Saturday evening, and my Dad and my sisters and their husbands drove to Appleton to share the lovely party with me.  The weather was mild that afternoon, but there were threats of freezing rain and I was afraid that they would have a bad drive home.  As we left the party, the parking lot was slippery and covered with ice.  Didn't look good.  The Green Bay group decided to head for home right away, and it was tough going but they made it home safely.

Nancy and David came back to our house, and we checked weat her.com and tried out the new 511 phone line for travel and road information.  It seemed as though things were likely to degenerate overnight, and so they set out for Chicago, leaving around 7:45 PM.  We heard from them around 10:00 as they were passing through Milwaukee area, and things were wet but not slippery.  They got home safely about 11:30.  

The next morning was proof of the wisdom of both groups, as we awoke to about 1/2 inch of ice covering just about everything.  It is beautiful, but persistent.  Certainly did in the skiing weekend at Bubolz. 

The tips of the Willow and the Ash trees along the creek were covered with ice at sunset on Sunday.  They were beautiful, with the half moon overhead.  And the sheen of the ice on the smooth yards full of snow is also pretty, though it does make everything harder to do.  Seems like it must be the heart of winter in Wisconsin. 

What a time to retire....