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Post by Phalon on Mar 5, 2020 8:08:15 GMT -6
It hasn't been nearly as nice here the last couple of days as it was Sunday and Monday - highs have still been in the 30s and 40s with periods of sunshine, but we've had rain and snow flurries mixed in on occasion.
They're back though! I've heard them for about a week, but Tuesday I saw the first robin of the season....and it's gotta be one fat robin by now. I saw it in my Michigan holly bush in the ravine, hungrily eating berries - in just two days, it stripped the bush clean!
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Post by Phalon on Mar 6, 2020 6:43:54 GMT -6
Snowy, and very blowy here this morning. In a couple of hours, I'm driving up to the college to bring home BP for spring break for just a long weekend with the family; she's taking advantage of the week off of classes next week to get in some extra hours at her part-time job in the college town.
The radar shows a heavier band of snow up near the college, but it's moving southeast, so hopefully I'll miss the worst of the blowing stuff during the drive. The weekend while she's here looks like it's going to be sunny and milder - more like spring break weather, than the winter break weather I'm seeing as I look out the window now!
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 7, 2020 1:11:55 GMT -6
We're having a couple of cold nights, but the weather for the most part is really nice. Until the breeze turns chilly. That's how it goes when the season is changing from one to the next.
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Post by moonglum on Mar 7, 2020 14:20:23 GMT -6
13C today. We've had no rain for two days now. The night temperatures have dropped to 2-3C but I don't mind that, with the window open the bedroom is nice and cool. Went over to the caravan to check on things ready for the start of the season. All seemed ok.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 10, 2020 6:22:37 GMT -6
Rainy, windy, and gloomy here - kinda cold too, in the 30s. It was the same yesterday, and is supposed to continue that way throughout the week.
Sunday though, was very nice - windy still, but the sun was shining, and the temperature was in the 50s. We went down to the beach to pick up trash - the amount of it that's washing ashore in the high winds, even with the ice-barrier still all the way to the end of the pier, is horrendous - little stuff, mostly plastic, but there's so much of it. We timed it perfectly - the sun setting over the lake to the west, and the full moon rising in the east. Gorgeous!
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Post by moonglum on Mar 11, 2020 8:16:07 GMT -6
Two days now with temps at 13C. Crocus plants are blooming in the parks, the daffodils are still out. It's still a bit windy now and again, but it's really nice to be out and about.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 13, 2020 22:36:22 GMT -6
All this rain has brought in the coyote, and I'm keeping the dog in until I'm sure she really has to go. I put pads down on the floor, but she doesn't use them. I've even started letting her out on the gated back porch to tinkle. (One day as we were going out the back door to get to the garage, she squatted and peed on the pile of leaves before I got the gate open.) One night I heard some kind of creature, that didn't sound like coyote, so I kept the dog in until the sun came up. The other night, as I opened the back door for her to tinkle in the leaves, I heard an animal call from the front of the house. I didn't think it was coyote ... it was a sound I had heard before, years ago. I decided it was a fox, and I did a search on YouTube for 'coyote calls' and 'fox calls' ... and it was a fox. So, at least when I hear that when letting the dog out, I don't have to worry. I've never had any problems with fox. Sadly, I haven't seen him/her. I really miss the fox family that lived in my backyard one summer, years ago. They were fun to watch, but their barking is eerie.
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Post by moonglum on Mar 20, 2020 0:55:02 GMT -6
Well, we have not had any rain all this week. Early morning temperatures have been around 6-7C warming up during the day to about 11C. Not much sunshine, although that might change today. I've been wanting the back lawn to dry out, it badly needs cutting, but so far the night dew has lasted pretty much all day as well. The grass is getting so long I'll have to go at it with the petrol strimmer before the lawn mower!
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Post by Phalon on Mar 20, 2020 7:03:50 GMT -6
It's still hovering between winter and spring here (isn't today the first day of spring? Or was it yesterday?) Temperatures are in the 30s and 40s for the highs, and 20s and 30s for the lows. It was supposed to be in the 50s yesterday, but we didn't get past 45 degrees, and it was very damp.
I got out for a walk before it started raining yesterday, and saw that some gardens around the neighborhood already had crocus blooming - no daffodil flowers yet though; they are my favorite. My daffodils are a few inches out of the ground, and there are some tight buds forming, but no hints of sunny yellow color yet. The helleborus (lenten rose) under the maple is forming buds too. Spring is starting to happen, though is seems it's slow-going.
I cut a big bouquet of pussywillow branches yesterday. Fuzzy and fun for the kitchen table.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 20, 2020 23:15:07 GMT -6
It got up in the high 60s and low 70s, and now it's cold again. Not the best weather for my head. I've had pressure behind and between my eyes. It eased up some today though. Thankful I didn't lose my lights during the severe weather we had yesterday. The last thing I need is to lose electricity and lose everything in my refrigerator and freezer. I'd never survive an apocalypse. Thinking it and knowing it is vastly different.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 21, 2020 9:01:55 GMT -6
The temperature here has risen a few degrees since this morning - it's a whopping 27 degrees, with a few wafting snowflakes, not even enough to call flurries.
Oddly, it feels a lot warmer than it did yesterday when it was in the mid-30s and windy. Or maybe, not so oddly.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 21, 2020 16:14:29 GMT -6
The temps here are to warm up to the days being in the 60s and 70s ... the nights in the 40s and 50s. The next few days aren’t suppose to be too cold. Supposed to get more rain. I hope the tornadoes hold off until people can come together again. Or forever would make me happy.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 22, 2020 6:10:53 GMT -6
You can send some of that warmer weather this way, please. It's 20F degrees here right now - F for Fahrenheit, frosty, or f**king? They all work.
Sun is coming up though. Whoo-hoo!
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 22, 2020 12:28:59 GMT -6
It got pretty cold here last night. Weather never listens to the weatherman. But it’s supposed to warm up soon. Wondering if I should get out this week to see if I can find dog food. Middle and end of week is supposed to be in the 60s/70s.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 23, 2020 6:21:57 GMT -6
Morning in the Mitten - beautiful!
Thirty degrees and snowing, and though it's tapering off now, it started last night, and everything is covered in a nice clean blanket of white. Much, much prettier than the bare brown everything of late winter/early spring.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 23, 2020 14:29:20 GMT -6
It’s 58F today. Rain is moving in tonight and tomorrow. Hard to believe March will be over soon, it only just started. Not even the virus made it slow down. For me, anyways. April may be slower going, since that’s probably when the virus will be in full swing. And hopefully soon we’ll be on the other end of it, until autumn.
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Post by moonglum on Mar 24, 2020 1:47:51 GMT -6
2C at 7.00 this morning with a nice frosting overnight. Yesterday was glorious. Only 12C but blazing sunshine. Daughters partner got the grass cut when he returned from work, he's working a reduced shift now and was home just after lunch. We sat out in the garden most of the day, me dreaming about garden railways and sheds (thinking about getting another one, that'll make seven!). Vox is much better and being outside did her a world of good.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 24, 2020 7:21:22 GMT -6
Seven sheds?!! Really, Moonglum? What do you keep in all of them?
Yay! Some good news!
Yesterday here, after a snowy morning, turned quite nice by afternoon. Warmer, but still on the cold side, but the sun was shining! I walked to the post office to drop off a bill, because I missed the mailman; the mail carrier never seems to come at the same time each day. Filled the bird feeders, and picked up twigs and sticks that had fallen throughout a winter of storms. It's still very wet in the yard though, making it kind of hard to do anything of substance in the gardens....there's still a lot of spring clean-up to do, and I'm itching to get out there and do it!
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Post by moonglum on Mar 25, 2020 0:02:55 GMT -6
-3C at 6am this morning with a heavy frost. It was another sunny day yesterday with temps around 12c. Both Vox and I took the dogs for a walk and it was very quiet, hardly anybody out. Just one or two going to the local shops. It was strange seeing people cross over to the other side of the road when they saw you coming. A good thing I think. It shows the message is sinking in with most people.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 26, 2020 7:58:50 GMT -6
Sunny here yesterday, and warmer - that breeze off the lake though, is still freezing! I worked out in the yard a bit, cutting last year's blooms off the hydrangeas and cutting down perennials that still looked good or were blooming in fall when I finished whatever I was going to get done before winter. I raked leaves in the ravine too...but left the pile where it was for now, debating whether to run them over with the mower a few times, mulching them into smaller pieces, or rake them onto a tarp to drag and dump curbside. The leaf-sucker truck came by last week, but I don't know if that's the last pass it'll make this spring.
I should probably decide here soon - it's cloudy, is supposed to start raining later today, and continue raining throughout the weekend.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 28, 2020 8:14:42 GMT -6
Heavy rain here last night, accompanied by thunder and lightning about 2:30am and lasting for a couple of hours. Poor Quetta - she hates storms; she paces back and force, panting, with tail tucked. It took me forever to calm her enough so that she laid down, and even then, I had to keep my hand on her the rest of the night or she'd get back up pacing, and we'd have to start it all over again. Hubs slept through it all, though he claims he heard the storm - I don't know how he could have; his snoring was just as loud as the thunder!
Thursday, I decided to get my piles of already raked leaves tarped and drag them up the ravine hill to the curb, figuring if the leaf-sucker truck came by yet again this spring then cool beans. If not, I'd just spread out the piles and mow over them on the parkway (the grassy area between the curb and sidewalk). I dragged three tarpfuls out of the ravine and raked about three more into piles before taking a break for lunch.
Guess what? The leaf-sucker truck came! Guess what else? It came while I was eating lunch, sucking up everything I'd gotten to the curb. The remaining piles are still in the ravine.
Sigh. Maybe the truck will come again next week.
I wonder if I start posting in the spring thread, will the weather here take a hint, and follow suit? It's still doesn't feel very springy here.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 28, 2020 22:25:25 GMT -6
It's pretty much Spring here. Or was. It got up to 80F on Thursday, and I've had the a/c on since then. Starting tomorrow, the days are to be in the 50s/60s this week, and the nights are to be in the 30s/40s ... so ...
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Post by Phalon on Mar 30, 2020 12:11:38 GMT -6
That would be high summer here!
Spring weather....in about a month maybe.
What our high daytime temperatures are.
So, it still feels like winter!
Brrrr.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 30, 2020 15:46:35 GMT -6
And it feels so much colder because the thermostat doesn’t drop low enough for the heat to kick on. At least I’m not switching back and forth between heat and air in the same day. Yet. I will soon enough though. Temperatures going up and down is a major pain.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 16, 2020 7:39:01 GMT -6
It's December, Christmas is a little more than a week away; the temperatures have been ranging from lows in the low 20s to highs in the low 30s.
Despite it still technically being autumn, it's definitely winter in The Mitten.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 17, 2020 7:15:15 GMT -6
We've got a light dusting of snow this morning. Though the it's not enough to cover the ground, it's just enough to blanket the rooftops in white. I can hear the chickadees yakking to each other - they are such noisy little birds - but it's still too dark to see them. I love watching the birds at the feeder - even in winter, I take my coffee out on the back porch to watch the show.
For the past few weeks, there has been a flock of cardinals - maybe around a dozen birds, both male and female - roosting on the bare branches of the viburnums near one of the feeders in the early evening. Cardinals are normally very territorial - I often see the males chase each other during the summer in what I assume is a staking out territory kind of thing, but in winter, they form flocks. Kind of a fun fact - a flock of cardinals has many names; it is called a "college", a "conclave", a "radiance", and even a "Vatican".
I'm glad I don't have to request an audience to see them!
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Post by Phalon on Dec 20, 2020 7:39:46 GMT -6
Dang, it's noisy out there this morning! The crows are yakking from one end of the neighborhood to the other. I wonder what ruffled their feathers, and got them all in a dither.
It's been pretty mild here the last couple of days with highs in the upper 30s and low 40s. I almost felt like I should be finishing up whatever I didn't get done in the gardens....almost felt like it. I know doing it now would make a whole lot less work in the spring though, so maybe I should put a little effort into changing "almost" to "must do".
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Post by Phalon on Dec 21, 2020 13:26:40 GMT -6
Happy Winter Solstice! Today marks the official end of Autumn, and is the shortest day of the year, with the longest night of the year. From now until Summer Solstice, the days get longer, and nights get shorter (good news for you, Joxie!)
Throw a Yule log on the fire, or light some candles - the ancients had community bonfires to celebrate the return of light. This year's Winter Solstice also coincides with that Jupiter and Saturn conjunction thing going on, so you just know it's got to be extra-special.
Another Winter Solstice ritual is to grab a broom and sweep the year's negativity right out the front door. Me...after all that happened this year, I went for something more heavy-duty. I grabbed the vacuum and sucked away the crap of 2020, and emptied it in the dumpster. Also works wonders for those dog hair/cat hair tumble weeds that magically form every time my back is turned.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 23, 2020 7:39:58 GMT -6
It's supposed to get up to 50 degrees today. Quite windy now though, and it's a cold wind, so I don't know if 50 degrees will feel nice or bitter.
Yesterday it was close to 40, just a slight wind, and sunny. Probably sounds weird, but if I stay inside on days like that, I always feel like I'm missing out somehow - like no matter what I'm doing inside, that I'm wasting the day instead of taking advantage of it. So I took a nice long walk, and it was wonderful.
On my way home, I saw a hawk sitting on the peak of the next-door neighbors' roof. I don't know if it was a red-tailed hawk or maybe a Cooper's hawk - or even some other hawk, because I can never tell the difference unless someone is with me and says "That's a such-and-such hawk." This hawk, whatever kind it is - and whatever kind it is, I think it's a juvenile - has been hanging around the vicinity for a week or so. It scared the cr@p out of Hubs last week, as it whizzed past the back door just as he was going outside, and rounded the corner of the garage, chasing a bird. I wonder if it was the hawk that got the crows all riled up the other morning - I've seen crows gang up on a hawk, giving chase and dive-bombing a hawk in flight. The reason I think it might be a juvenile hawk is because later yesterday, I was cutting branches in the brush pile into smaller fire-pit sized pieces, when I saw the hawk again - this time across the street, squaring off with the neighbor's cat. It didn't appear to be attacking it; I think the cat and hawk were after the same bird, and surprised each other. The bird got away, the cat easily won the battle over territory, and the hawk flew into our yard, high in the maple, to stalk my bird feeders.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 24, 2020 9:00:46 GMT -6
It did get up to 50 degrees yesterday as predicted, but the wind never let up - as is evident by the big limb torn from the maple laying across the backyard.
Still windy as hell, and 25 degrees colder than yesterday. It's predicted to stay in the mid-twenties for the next few days. It's snowing now and is supposed to continue to do so throughout tomorrow. Looks like we'll have a white Christmas this year.
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