Author Topic: Signs of Spring  (Read 208511 times)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #200 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:06:49 pm »
In our garden.  Purple and yellow crocuses just about in bloom.  There are some pale lilac ones next to the cherry tree which are fully open.  The hellebores are looking really nice at the moment.  Loads of daffs in bud, but no flowers yet.

On the way into Yeovil from the south west, there's a huge display of daffs.  They're different varieties and have been planted such that the first ones to bloom are on the edge of town, then the sweep of yellow moves down the hill and up past the end of the aerodrome towards my office.  Usually the earliest ones are out before the New Year and the last ones don't open until March.  This year they seem to be all opening at once!

S
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #201 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:22:12 pm »
For the past couple of weeks now my journey home has been rounded off nicely by a blackbird singing a nearby rooftop.  A tawny owl has been very vocal this week, and on Friday whilst working from home I could hear a gs woodpecker drumming. Blue tits, chaffinches, and dunnocks have also been joining in.  We don't have any crocuses out yet but we have quite a few snowdrops and a single purple polyanthus providing a little drop of colour.   
Aero but not dynamic

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #202 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:23:26 pm »
There was a daffodil in bloom somewhere near Felsted today.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

IanDG

  • The p*** artist formerly known as 'Windy'
    • the_dandg_rouleur
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #203 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:26:17 pm »
The sun's made an appearance recently

Tail End Charlie

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #204 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:33:12 pm »
Daffs nowhere near bloomnig, but I also heard a woodpecker drumming yesterday.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #205 on: 20 February, 2011, 05:57:12 pm »
When I open the shutters in the morning, the bedroom gets lighter, not darker.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #206 on: 22 February, 2011, 11:12:22 am »
Yesterday: a song thrush in full voice.

Sometimes these creatures get confused. I recall a few years ago a song thrush singing for a few consecutive nights around Christmas. We'd hear him when we took the dog for a walk, near midnight. After about a week the poor creature came to its senses. Yesterday's looked and sounded as though he meant it though.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Gus

  • Loosing weight stone by stone
    • We will return
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #207 on: 22 February, 2011, 01:00:00 pm »
Signs of Spring :

Freezing cold wind from east

snow
Temperatures well below 0oC

I'm so jealous of you lot, I want spring here too.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #208 on: 22 February, 2011, 01:08:00 pm »
The weather has yet to give us many signs of spring, Gus. It's pretty raw outside and dull and cloudy.

Having said that, my wonderful device has recorded only two air frosts this year, which is pretty remarkable when one considers what December was like.

http://tickfield.thewalkers.org.uk/weather/NOAA/NOAA-2011.txt

That makes it look like 3 frosts, but one of them was on the night of 31st Jan / 1st Feb  so in reality was only two nights on which the temperature fell below zero.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #209 on: 22 February, 2011, 09:52:19 pm »
Crocuses are up in the Meadows, and this morning I inhaled my first fly of the year.  :sick:
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


a lower gear

  • Carmarthenshire - "Not ALWAYS raining!"
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #210 on: 23 February, 2011, 10:45:55 pm »
The sap IS rising: lopping sycamore branches and to my surprise sap was dripping furiously from the cut branches - saw, hands, clothes, laddders, everything got wet and sticky.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #211 on: 24 February, 2011, 09:39:57 pm »
A squashed toad on Station Road, Wickham Bishops.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #212 on: 24 February, 2011, 10:41:39 pm »
Our grass needs mowing.
It was too wet for our Polish cleaner/gardener lady to do today. She tells me it's -20°C back home and her parents are amazed when she tells them of the open flowers here.
She'll get her own back in late summer and autumn, though.  :)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #213 on: 25 February, 2011, 08:26:49 pm »
Saw my first celandines of the year on my lunchtime pootle today

S
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #214 on: 27 February, 2011, 11:46:37 am »
Forsythia and frogspawn. I don't recall seeing frogspawn in Feb before. I'm sure it's all doomed.

The daffodil heads are bending over and some of them have yellow showing, but they are not properly out yet. Tomorrow or Tuesday I reckon.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #215 on: 27 February, 2011, 05:17:53 pm »
We have frogspawn in the pond. 
We've had it this early before, but it was doomed.   :(  Two years ago when we got that late snow.
And our daffs are out on the patio (where it's much more sheltered than the rest of the garden)

S
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of Númenor
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #216 on: 27 February, 2011, 05:30:22 pm »
Snodrops, crocuses, catkins, and the daffs nearly out.

Love this time of  year.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #217 on: 27 February, 2011, 11:49:55 pm »
First Celandines last Wednesday & a few more today, despite the cool, wet weather. The Warwickshire roadside verges have huge patches of celandine leaves without flowers

Dog's Mercury is now starting to flower - lots on the verges today. Carpets of snowdrops alongside the lanes, though they couldn't be bothered to open up fully in the rain. No wild daffodils yet, though the cultivated varieties are showing an occasional yellow trumpet.

The hedges are full of honeysuckle leaves - open, but still reminiscent of the buds of a week ago. Elder leaves have been around for a couple of weeks. Hawthorn buds are just bursting into leaf, providing a new subtle green tinge to the bits of the hedges that aren't already covered in moss.

Spotted a magpie flying past with a big twig in its beak. There's little time left before the nesting season is under way. Coppicing & hegding will soon have to stop until next winter.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #218 on: 27 February, 2011, 11:51:49 pm »
A few years ago Mrs. Wow's mother's hedge (ooerr missus!) had a blackbird's nest with babies in it before the end of February.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #219 on: 02 March, 2011, 11:04:25 am »
Churchill Gardens this morning. Total absence of frogs and spawn.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #220 on: 02 March, 2011, 03:58:42 pm »
Frogspawn in the garden pond today. I noticed it whilst cutting the lawn!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #221 on: 02 March, 2011, 05:58:43 pm »
A bumble bee bumbling around some highly-scented flowers at the foot of Brandon Hill this afternoon. Sunny day and a south facing slope, but even so I'd have thought it was still a bit chilly for bees. Well, there was only the one.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #222 on: 02 March, 2011, 06:00:47 pm »
loads of daffs out on the front lawn of one of the houses I ran past at lunchtime, and it definitely smells of spring out there..  (still bloody cold though, I was fooled by the sunshine and a t-shirt and ron hills wasnt enough)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #223 on: 04 March, 2011, 08:05:19 pm »
Several primroses were flowering on a sunny south-facing bank close to the celandine observed 9 days ago. On the south eastern approach to Solihull a couple of daffodils (cultivated varieties) were open at 845. On the way home, around midday, there were a dozen or more in flower in glorious spring sun.

Meanwhile the woodland floor(s) beside the Warwick road had carpets of snowdrops at their best. They're a bit late if it's primrose time.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #224 on: 04 March, 2011, 09:40:27 pm »
Some daisies on the south-facing slope of Southend sea front.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.