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!
If you look at 2012 and 2013, they sort of average out to mid-March.
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