Thursday, January 12, 2006

in January?


Yes. Pussy willows already budded out. Unreal.

I was feeling well enough, aided by a few drugs, to venture out this afternoon with The Hermit and Mr. Attitude to our storage shed, which is about twenty miles away, to put away Christmas decorations and get a few things. On the way back we were looking at the landscape, commenting on the unseasonably warm January weather (normally we'd be looking at a major cold spell of -20 F right now) and how global warming will affect our winter weather. We were driving by a large shrub swamp, and The Hermit commented how by late February we'd be seeing the pussy willows budding out. I looked out the window, and what did I see...but pussy willows budding out. Not a lot of them yet, but a few scattered bushes.

Oh well, all is not bad. I adore tufted titmice, which venture as far north as southeastern Minnesota, but we're predicting within ten years we'll be seeing them in our neck of the woods.

5 comments:

Madcap said...

It's been really warm here, too. Makes me nervous, not just in a long-term sense, but we often get severe forest fires in this area when the winter's been dry. Funny you should mention pussy-willows - I was just thinking about them this afternoon when I was looking out at my apple trees and wondering if we were going to lose all the blooms to another late frost this year.

robin andrea said...

Interesting, Ontario Wanderer has a post up about how warm it is there too. It is troubling in both the short and long term. We're having more rain than usual here, and the low temps are higher than normal. It'll be interesting to see what February brings.

clairesgarden said...

our weather is all over the place, today is really warmm but two days ago it was below freezing. last winter was just as cold but with constant rain, this year has been drier altogether, I had to water the garden all summer which is truly unusual as we're known for having a lot of rain.
I think Scotland is predicited, with global warming, to end up a climate like Iceland!!!
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............

Deb said...

clairesgarden--welcome! I popped over to your blog and I can't wait to see more...it's nice to see what's going on in Scotland. I will put up a link to you.

The winter started out cold and snowy, but since Christmas it's been very mild for here. Our summer, however, was strange; a killing frost in early August wiped out my pole beans just as I was ready to harvest.

Lené Gary said...

Unbelievable! Hope you're feeling better, Deb.