We have had the hottest February on record here! The Gulf of Mexico water temp at our beach was 82 as of this morning...almost warm enough to wade in! (84 is my absolute minimum for swimming. Yeah, I'm a delicate little flower.)
We are promised a cool spell starting this weekend. I'll believe it when I feel it.
(I keep seeing the reddish-smiley-face-with-white-on-blue-background avatar as a Chicago Cubs emblem, despite the fact that the colors really aren't right...)
BE PREPARED, BE PREPARED. received two warnings of large winter storm, snow, rain and such. I gathered in firewood, checked freezer for soup, I was prepared. Woke up to soft rain and now a bit of blue sky. Come on we need water here in Northern California.
Here on the east coast we are supposed to have a major storm. Where I am in the midAtlantic it's going to be mainly wind, but further north the snow will kick in.
I was sitting at the breakfast table, looking out the window, and I saw a tree falling, from left to right, in our back yard! The wind gusts around here are reported to be up to 60 mph. Other neighbors have had their decks taken out by trees, but ours fell neatly, not even damaging the other trees. It's a huge one, about the circumference of my arms, but now it has flopped over you can see how it is rotten at the base.
I didn't hear it crack, over the roar of the wind, nor did I hear an impact when it hit the ground. But I will say that my hearing is not so grand these days.
Mr S was woken in the night some years ago by a loud crash. He got up and looked out the window, but it was all dark so he went back to bed.
Next morning he was awoken by chainsaws at 7 am - a huge oak tree in next door's garden had fallen straight across the road, taking out the street light (hence the darkness!) It had also neatly taken out the motorhome parked in the garden of the people across the road.
Mercifully this was a few weeks before Christmas; they'd planned to have guests sleeping there over the holidays :-O
Our wind situation has been weird today. Most of the time it's moderate, but every now and then we have five or ten minutes worth of spectacular gusts. I suspect we're just on the edge of two weather systems.
For four days they have called for snow. None. Woke up this morning to the mountains all around us covered in snow, none here at the base. Sky is grey so I am still hoping for a light sprinkle. We never get much here but a light sprinkle makes the garden so lovely to look at that I hope for some.
Lovely here too - so much wind that the snow is rapidly disappearing. Had a beautiful walk this morning and looking forward to some fresh snow in the morning.
We are finally having the weather we wait all year for! Therefore, tomorrow I'm going to one of the local swamp boardwalks to enjoy the greening cypress trees and the wild irises blooming!
I guess it might be good to take all my different allergy meds before I go, since oaks, pines and mangoes are blooming profusely. My car is turning yellow!!
We're having a nor'easter here, heavy, heavy snow, and actually at least one clap of thunder. Estimates of anywhere from 3 - 12 inches of snow. But on the bright side, my work is closing early, at 5:00 instead of 7:00. Of course I was only scheduled to work til 6:00, but if nothing else it's an extra hour to get home.
I think we're expecting the tail-end of it once you've finished with it, Nicole - they're offering us 6 inches to a foot of snow over the next few days.
I had the best time with my dad yesterday! He used to fly small planes very frequently, which was his childhood dream. Where he grew up, mail came by way of an open cockpit biplane, which landed in his grandmother's field.
As is the case with so many things we love to do in our youths, he had to eventually give up flying. That was about twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, and his last flight was with Daughter-Unit, who was about four or five years old, as co-pilot. Mom gave him a gift certificate to fly as a Christmas gift, and yesterday was the day he used it! (I got to be a passenger in the back seat!)
It was such a gorgeous day, and we flew over the islands off the west coast of my fair state. The water was clear and sparkling.
How was the participation in the student walkout in your neck of the woods? We had a good turnout by many school, including two K-8 schools (only the 5-8) walked out.
About 40 from the local high school piled into BurgerPalace just as I was getting off today -- short shift.
A few hundred walked past on the main drag, to an accompaniment of many, many car and truck horns. I couldn't compete, but I clapped and shouted anyway.
A group of students sat in at the Arizona State Capitol demanding to see the governor. They were told the governor "wasn't there". They remained in the Capitol past closing time despite being asked by the police to leave. Eventually they did leave peacefully without the need for the police to remove them by force.
I know a lot of you are having bad weather, and I don't want to make you feel worse, but I just have to let you know how beautiful it is here! After having an abysmally hot February, we've been having atypically cool weather in March! Today is gorgeous!! 64 degrees and sunny outside! This is why we live in Florida! It's certainly not for the August air-you-can-wear oven hot weather!
The California drought continues and worsens. Los Angeles got half an inch during this last storm. It is at 4 1/2" for the season when the recent average has been 10" (when I was a kid it was 14"). I looked forlornly at the softly green hills to store their memory for the coming months.
The California drought continues and worsens. Los Angeles got half an inch during this last storm. It is at 4 1/2" for the season when the recent average has been 10" (when I was a kid it was 14"). I looked forlornly at the softly green hills to store their memory for the coming months.
The Phoenix area has had less than an inch in 2018, and nothing predicted for the next two weeks.
The California drought continues and worsens. Los Angeles got half an inch during this last storm. It is at 4 1/2" for the season when the recent average has been 10" (when I was a kid it was 14"). I looked forlornly at the softly green hills to store their memory for the coming months.
The Phoenix area has had less than an inch in 2018, and nothing predicted for the next two weeks.
I also missed Palm Sunday services this year, thanks to a stomach bug that had me on my back Friday and Saturday. I’m about back to normal, and able to eat for the first time in 48 hours, but I thought it would be a bad idea to risk passing it around the choir, with 8 services and one rehearsal on next week.
Spring is fully here, with my perennials starting to come back. Pollen counts have to be high as well, judging from my nose. Planting some chard and lettuce in a seed starting tray, and watching Kansas-Duke and fondly remembering my grandmother’s brother in law, Uncle Les, a huge Jayhawks fan, who was the last of that generation to pass this winter.
Today four Virginia Tech students came to my house to do work I requested. Every spring they have what is called the Big Event, where students do work for townspeople.
They mulched my peonies and raked my yard. I had wanted them to clean my screen porch, but this would have meant setting stuff out in the driveway, and rain was threatening. I'm glad to have the raking and mulching taken care of.
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We are promised a cool spell starting this weekend. I'll believe it when I feel it.
Appear to have made the transfer to the new ship OK, but still have to sort out an avatar...
[Miss Amanda will get her wrap.]
Next morning he was awoken by chainsaws at 7 am - a huge oak tree in next door's garden had fallen straight across the road, taking out the street light (hence the darkness!) It had also neatly taken out the motorhome parked in the garden of the people across the road.
Mercifully this was a few weeks before Christmas; they'd planned to have guests sleeping there over the holidays :-O
Mrs. S, very wary of big trees these days
I guess it might be good to take all my different allergy meds before I go, since oaks, pines and mangoes are blooming profusely. My car is turning yellow!!
As is the case with so many things we love to do in our youths, he had to eventually give up flying. That was about twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, and his last flight was with Daughter-Unit, who was about four or five years old, as co-pilot. Mom gave him a gift certificate to fly as a Christmas gift, and yesterday was the day he used it! (I got to be a passenger in the back seat!)
It was such a gorgeous day, and we flew over the islands off the west coast of my fair state. The water was clear and sparkling.
Dad flying the plane. That's his head just showing above the seat. Dad beside the plane after we landed.
I once had a 'taster' flying lesson, and it wasn't for me, but it was lovely to fly over the hills and woods near where we live.
MMM
A few hundred walked past on the main drag, to an accompaniment of many, many car and truck horns. I couldn't compete, but I clapped and shouted anyway.
My sympathies.
Between the smoke and the pollen, I have bronchitis again.
Spring is fully here, with my perennials starting to come back. Pollen counts have to be high as well, judging from my nose. Planting some chard and lettuce in a seed starting tray, and watching Kansas-Duke and fondly remembering my grandmother’s brother in law, Uncle Les, a huge Jayhawks fan, who was the last of that generation to pass this winter.
Crikey! Don't even think about sending it in our direction!
Sorry you had to miss Palm Sunday though - that's a total pain.
They mulched my peonies and raked my yard. I had wanted them to clean my screen porch, but this would have meant setting stuff out in the driveway, and rain was threatening. I'm glad to have the raking and mulching taken care of.