April Showers?

We begin our call to Spring mid-February, even sooner for some of us (you) who have had far too many Arctic Blasts that have left far too much snow. We make it through February knowing that Spring is waiting for the just right time. March brings much hope, but the damaging snows continue--in some parts of the country. Others such as Northern Colorado get great promises of snow and moisture only to be left out once again. The lawns are dry. The garden beds dusty. We see green grass beginning to emerge in the lawn underneath the brown stuff left from winter. The hay field begins to show signs of greening; the perennial weeds are coming on much too quickly to keep up with them. Who wants to be out in the garden waging weed warfare? Me. I do. But March disappoints because it is still very cold and even if there is strong sun, there is that nasty little breeze that whips through the trees, creating a bit of chill in the air. Too cold to work outside. Besides I have papers to grade.

And then the grand dame of Spring arrives: Lady April with promises of showers that will bring those gorgeous May flowers that we have yearned for all winter so badly that we pay $10. a bunch at the super market for a handful of daffodils or tulips just because we are sick of winter, aching for some spring color. But wait. Mother Nature and Lady April have a wicked sense of humor. While it's certainly not nice to mess with Mother Nature, I ask you, Lady April, "What did I do to deserve this:

We have waited all winter for the daffodils to bloom. I have lamented with my blogger friends in the UK my desires to see the 10,000 daffodils that William Wordsworth glorifies in his poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" where he describes a host of daffodils by lake's edge--Lake Windermere in Grasmere. Oh to see such a sight. So I plant a few dozens daffies, patiently await their arrival and this is what Lady April does: Spoils it all. 

The Hairy woodpecker will fill his belly with peanuts while the little Downy woodpecker prefers suet.  The chickadee waits its turn.

The flicker looks pretty cozy tucked away in the pines, belly full.

And the blue jay stops for meal. The birds need plenty of feed to store up energy for the long cold night. The bird feeders are a flutter of a variety of birds from the sweet little chickadee to the nasty old grackles.

We were well warned of the storm by the weather prognosticators: wind, rain, snow, ice, freezing temperatures, blowing snow, blizzard conditions, bad roads. We know the routine."6-12-14 inches in our area." Last night as we were preparing for bed we knew how bad the weather was in northeastern Colorado: tornadoes that did do some damage. Hail. Rain. Snow all in a few hours and well to the east of us.

 I was up at 5:30, deciding that I needed to leave for work early because the roads would be awful. I looked out expecting to see several inches of snow, but little to none. The radio guys said "Yeah it snowed about 5 inches in the night, but the wind blew it elsewhere." So I dressed and headed out the door. The road was indeed awful, but the sky in the east looked as though it was clearing, while the clouds in the west over the mountains looked purple and angry.

I came out of my 8:00 class at 9:15 to see the that the snow had picked up, falling horizontally as the wind blew it off course. I had students asking, begging to cancel class in the 9:30 class. Nope. I drove here, guys. We will Carry on. By 11:30 students were calling me in my office asking me if class would be canceled. Nope, I'll be there. Then another student called to say that the university was closed was class still meeting. "Well, I guess not," I answered. And I came home.

So the daffodils and the birds tell the weather story today. April 9th and it is 15 degrees, windy, snowing, and I am blogging about it. 

Wordsworth never says anything in his poem about snow crushing the daffodils; maybe someday I will write that one.

Heads up Robin, Judy, and Ann, and the rest of my dear friends east of me; the weather guys say that this storm will dance its way across the country, gaining speed and strength along the way. Will we be reading about your garden under a blanket of snow by week's end? 

Just Blog It. 

Stay warm and dry.