Saturday, March 29, 2014

Winter, Go Home!

Winter 2014 was the "worst winter ever" and then became the "winter that would not end".

I took this photo from my back window the week that I came home from my February trip to southern California.


Fortunately, those icicles are long gone.  This past Wednesday night, locally, our record low temperature for the date was broken by 2 degrees.  (Many records were broken this winter, but I took note of this one because now it is truly spring.  Right?)  The record low had been 15° F and now is 13° F.  I have decided to declare a win for Winter 2014:  You won.  You beat us in a record breaking way, and now it really is time for you to go back where you came from... OK?  Winter, go home.  Now!  Do not turn back!  The southern hemisphere might be your kind of place right now.

I know that spring is here because I saw two robins (together) in our yard last Saturday.  That felt lucky, because even though I usually see a single robin by the first week of march, I really do not remember ever seeing two (together) as my first robin sighting of the year.

Thursday morning, as I drank my coffee, the sun was shinning very brightly and I got caught up in watching a pair of smaller, I think, finches seriously engaged in nest-building in a tall pine tree through my front window.  I tried very hard to get a photo and I failed.

The robins and the finches reminded me of the hawk's nest at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.  I remembered that eggs were laid in past March's, and I went to check it out...  I learned some very sad news at the "Hawkwatch at the Franklin Institute" blog.  But there was also news of reason for hope.  Let us all have hope for the Philadelphia Hawks.  I do.     


Later in the day, after lunch, my outdoor thermometer read 42° F, and that meant it was one of the warmest days of the week.  I went out to get my mail and newspaper with my camera in my pocket.

It was very windy.  I tried one last time to photograph the pine tree where I had observed a couple of steady hours of nesting activity.  No birds there.  I was cold.  It was windy.  (No birds.  No photos.)

Nearby, I checked out a flowerbed, which had a fantastic crocus bloom a couple of years ago, and then, I walked up to a daffodil bed on the other end of the property.  (No buds, no sprouts, no anything.  No photos.)

No luck at all.  Winter did his thing and he won and his photo is my only photo today.  But he is done.  I sent him home.

4 comments:

  1. I spoke with my father in Central New York yesterday, and he was practically cheering as he told of seeing crocuses pushing up in the backyard. I suspect (hope) that by the time I am back home from a winter in Florida, all signs of the northeast's winter will be gone!

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    1. Thanks, Tracy! I shifted my own focus to buds in the trees (they are really there!) And the birds are out whenever the sun shines.

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  2. And to add to your post, what about Sunday? We had four hours of sleet and then another four hours of snow. It covered the ground once again and I don't think the day got above 33. But, it is all a part of the wonder of nature, isn't it?

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    1. I did wake up to 3 inches of snow on Monday. By that afternoon, the sun was shining brightly, and a lot of it melted. On the other hand... the high temperature of 50°F (it felt so very warm) was actually a 'near normal' high for the date on Monday. Thanks for commenting, Catherine! Look for the word "sunshine" in my next post.

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