In like a Lion...

Happy March!  

I spent a lot of time looking down today on my walk.  There were several reasons for this.  First, it was extremely windy and also spitting rain.  Also, last nights torrential rains and thunderstorms left puddles to avoid and also WORMS! all over the pavement.  Definitely something to avoid, as a person.  I did enjoy watching 2 robins hop around and pick them up, though. 

Looking down, I got to see a lot of bulb plants poking their foliage up through the soil... The rounded still fingers of daffodil leaves, the wide pointy tulip leaves... Every yard has its signs of spring emerging.  Still, I was pretty surprised to see this actual purple crocus poking through!  (This same yard had many purple and a sprinkling of yellow crocuses, all in this stage of bloom.)

At one point when I did look up, I was taken by how much the aspen catkins had changed in the past few days -- and how wet and sorry they looked, like a soggy dog!

BTW... glad I got out for a little walk before this happened:

This was the afternoon view out my office window... thick, whirling, swirling snow.  I guess Baba Marta has some dirty carpets.  (Explanation: today at school we celebrated Baba Marta day, which is a Bulgarian holiday to welcome and encourage the start of spring.  Grandmother March is very temperamental and gets angry or sad and then happy as the March weather quickly changes.  We were told than when it snows in March, that's Baba Marta cleaning the dust out of her carpets.  We all learned something new today!)

Crocus Pocus

I spotted my first blooming crocus of the year -- actually saw about 50 of them, in 3 separate yards... and here's a woolly bear, a week after my first sighting of the spring.  

Crocus

No more needs be said.  Well, actually...

Snowdrops, too.

Ice Off and More

The ice is off Lake Leopold this morning.  (Ice off date probably 4/2/14, not 4/3...)

Looking at the dates for the past 8 years, we're just about where we were at last year... but last year was late. Interesting... 

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

2013 -- April 4!

Also, the vernal witchhazel is finally starting to flower!  (I noticed it yesterday, 4/2.  It's behind schedule -- this typically happens in mid-March and in 2012 it happened in late February.)  The flowers are diminutive, but lovely and fragrant if you get up close...  The flowers are yellow-orange and have 4 petals that I think look like streamers/party decorations (for a very tiny party)... Happy Spring!

(Another notable... crocuses in our yard flowering this week -- we noticed on 3/31!  Snowdrops have been flowering for a while -- probably since the snow that was covering them melted!)

Welcome, Sun!

The snow flurries are flying and there are ice-fishermen on the lake... but today at 11:57 am local time, the sun will be directly over the equator, and then... we welcome the sun back to the northern hemisphere!  Or more accurately, we celebrate the fact that our northern hemisphere is, once again, tilted toward the sun (because if course, the sun didn't change anything...)

Equinoxes and solstices have been celebrated in cultures throughout the world since ancient times; we join in a long human tradition as we recognize this day!

Other things to note (besides the snow flurries)... I wish I had more to report on this first official day of spring! 

Silver maple flower buds are very swollen. 

RWBBs are all over!

In my yard, bulb plants (daffodils, crocuses) have emerged from the soil... 

My Seasonal Update

I haven't been motivated to blog lately... but that doesn't mean I haven't been making notes about the appearance (or lack thereof) of spring... and sometimes composing poetic paragraphs in my head that never make it onto paper (keyboard).  Finally, however, I feel the need to have a record of data that I can look back on.  

Winter may have started weak this year, but it ended strong.  There was a weak in early March when the ground was covered with a foot of snow -- we had 2 largish late-winter snowfalls -- and everyone was walking around talking about how last year on this day it was 80 degrees.  None of that in 2013.  Spring is arriving reluctantly.  I can only hope that means when it comes, it will park itself firmly, not let winter creep back in!

Yesterday was ice off... the latest ice off in the past 7 years at least.  Here's the data I've kept, indicating that we're over a month past last year's date, weeks later than average... and indeed, it's the only April ice off date I've seen!

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

2013 -- April 4!

Meanwhile, plants are similarly slow compared to last year.  In 2012, spring ephemerals flowered in March -- we had violets and Pasqueflower, bloodroot and others... This year... not a lot.  Crocuses are in full bloom, daffodil and tulip leaves are out with frost-burned tips, but they're not that tall yet.  There's no green haze across the water as willows get that springy green... even the catkins have been slow to swell.  (Vernal witch hazel is in bloom, and silver maples have flowered... that's about it that I've noticed, plant-wise.)  Redwing black birds are about the only thing that kept to the normal spring schedule this year.

Yesterday, I saw a cluster of ants surrounding something on the sidewalk, and last weekend when we went for a walk, some gnatty things were flying around my head, so I guess the insect workld is starting to come back to life, too. 

OK, back to work!  

Some Sketches

 I am pretty out of practice with sketching.  And I haven't the time to work on it.  I wish I did; maybe now with daylight savings time... Anyhow, today I stole about 15 minutes while eating my snack and tried three very quick sketches, then later a fourth... but I didn't really "get into" or feel great about any of them.  Ah, well.  They still illustrate what's happening today!

Siberian Elms Flowering

First Forsythia Flowers

Yesterday, the forsythia bushes had small yellow buds on them.  In 24 hours, they grew about a centimeter and some of them opened up.  It's really amazing -- you could probably literally see them grow if you had the patience.

Lilacs Buds Begin to Look Like Leaves

Crocus

Other notables today:

• 2 daffodils bloomed in our yard, although most are not even close.
• Scilla started blooming today.
• Temperatures topped 80 degrees F.

Things I Love

Things I Love, by Naomi

• I love waking up to a cacophony of chirps from robins and chickadees, sparrows and cardinals, through the open bedroom window.
• I love walking around my yard to check what's blooming before I leave for work without having to put a jacket on.  (Today: dwarf irises, crocuses, lilac leaves pushing out of their bud scales...)  (I'd love it even more if I didn't have to go to work, but the point is, no jacket to bother with, even early in the morning.)
• I love wearing my sunglasses as a headband when I step inside and not having to worry about the fact that a hat is already in their place on my head.  
• I love not wearing socks.  
• I love when my closet -- situated over the garage and not part of the heating or cooling system of the house -- isn't freezing or boiling when I go to get my clothes. 
• I love when things change every day; it's like waking up to discover a new world each morning.  Even after a mild winter, it's so so refreshing to hit almost-spring.   

(Just wait until we get some sort of April blizzard.  Oh, the complaining I'll engage in!)

Floral First

Vernal Witch Hazel Flowers Unfurl

Several notable events today... The first flower of 2012 is blooming -- the vernal witch hazels have started decorating for spring's party.  (I think their four petals look like streamers, thus make good party decor.)

We also noticed that crocuses have grown about an inch out of the ground... probably snowdrops, too, though I didn't check.

Finally, there is no ice at all on the lakes today... late last week, some kids in my neighborhood fell through the ice... meaning that it wasn't thick, but there was an ice cover.  Yesterday about half the water area was covered on most lakes, and today, nothing.  This is an early ice-off, as you can see if you look at the dates below.  (The kids were rescued, btw.)

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

Crocus

Returning to Illinois, it almost seems as though spring has stalled, the weather still cold. But the crocuses were up, reminding me that it IS spring and it WILL get warm!

Crocus

In My Head

I sketched the delicate flowers of the witch hazel the other day, before it snowed and when it was relatively warm. I have long admired the flame-colored streamer petals -- four long, skinny rectangular petals that extend from each flower and gradually turn from deep red to bright orange to yellow. Inside each flower, barely discernible reproductive parts hide. But what I never remember noticing before was the fragrance. I sat downwind as I drew, and the bushes emanated a heavy, almost sweet smell. It was what a novelist would call a heady perfume. I don't even know what this means, really, but as I breathe it in and my lungs just seem full of this scent like it almost makes me dizzy, and it pops unbidden into my mind... a heady scent.

What is most amazing about it, though, is its newness. Just the fact that you can see something all the time, observe it closely, take pictures of it and notes... and still not know all there is to know. You can still learn new things, make new discoveries, and without going at all far afield. It's funny, students all the time point out that they've already studied something, already drawn it or seen it or learned it... as though you did something once and then you were finished. You have gotten all their is to get about this thing, because you studied it once. What an absurd notion! There is always so much to learn...

ps -- Today was sunny and not all that warm, but above freezing, and yesterday's snow is all but gone. I took a photo of some crocuses today, too, which I may publish tomorrow...

Ribbit

Chorus frogs are singing their comb-plucking sound. These fellows are one of the first frogs we hear in the spring, and their voice does sound very much like plucking a large comb from the low to high end. I don't think it's that sexy, but I guess it drives the girl chorus frogs crazy.

Yesterday I noticed 2 crocuses that were almost open. Today, these same flowers opened wide, displaying their yellow reproductive system in the midst of their purple petals. (This is one of my very favorite color combinations.)