Good Grief! Snow in May

Last night the weatherperson was having the equivalent of a weather orgasm all over the place.   We were setting records in the Ozarks, right and left.   Let’s see, we had the lowest high temperature ever.   I think we set a record for the lowest low temperature for that date.   It snowed in Arkansas, an event that has not happened in May for 194 years.   It snowed here too, something that last happened 106 years ago.

Last night as we were eating our dinner a little flurry set in.   I felt compelled to try to capture it, and I’m telling you that snowfall is hard to get on a still picture.   All those white streaks?   Snow.

This is how it looked this morning.

The reason the perspective is so odd on the last one is I was standing on the step ladder.   As you can see, pansies and the peas in the tubs below don’t give a rap that they were snowed on.

The cats know how to deal with snow.

This photo is remarkable for two reasons.   First, there is a fire going in the stove.   In May.  Unheard of.   Second, Impy is actually lying in front of it.  The first time he witnessed fire being made in the stove his reaction was terrorized disbelief, never having seen a fire or heard it snapping and popping.  He was sure there was some sort of cat-eating monster residing in the living room.  As you can see, Mallory has managed to educate him about the subject.

So, lest you should believe that this spring snow is some sort of horrible environmental disaster, let me reassure you on that point.   Sure, it is chilly, but the frozen precipitation that caused such ecstasy for the meteorologists came without a hard freeze.   So the garden goes on, almost without acknowledging that anything odd or record breaking has occurred.

It’s a good thing I got out there and got those pictures when I did.   In the time it took me to download them, edit them and get this far on my post, the snow on the wisteria has all melted.

I was concerned about the robins, whom I know for a fact have been very busy incubating eggs lately.   Jim showed me one out in one of the cedars a few days ago who was guarding new hatchlings.   So, the few days of cold and unseasonable snow made me worried for the little family.

I went out to see what I could see.  She was sitting tight.

She did not like me or the camera, and left the nest to yell at me from a convenient locust tree.   Her mate joined her in vociferous complaints.   Since the nest was open, I thought I’d grab a quick look.

Not wanting those naked babies to get cold, I left immediately.  I hadn’t gotten fifty feet away before Mama was back on the nest.   So that was all right.

The robin who has chosen to nest on the dragon head driftwood is hyper-vigilant.    You can’t walk into the back yard past the corner of that sauna without her jumping off the nest and flying over to the fig tree to tell you all about it.   This morning was no exception.

I had my doubts about the viability of her eggs given that pattern of behavior.  Apparently all that flying off didn’t keep the eggs from developing.

I guess that the cold weather this morning made it possible for her to ignore my presence over by the pond, because she got back on the nest while I was there, which is not her typical pattern.

She was able to stay on her babies while I walked back to the house.   Of course, the fact that I walked WAY over by the fence behind where the clothesline is may have had something to do with it.

Well, I”m not so overjoyed by this weather pattern as the weatherman, but it certainly has been interesting.

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Spring is here again

After a lot of fitful starts and stops, it appears that spring has finally come to the Ozarks.   We had a lot of swings in temperature last month, one day it would be in the 60s and then the next it would be freezing and snowing.

Through it all the crocuses carried on bravely.   I had daffodils that got snowed on and showed no ill effects.

In the interim I have started going to water aerobics on a regular basis.   When I first started, there were things I really couldn’t do, and I certainly could not keep up with the instructor.   Now I can keep up with her and my core has gotten strong enough that I can do the things that were impossible before.   And my love handles have shrunk.

I started out a little too fast and intense, and wound up being very sore.   After a few weeks, my dear husband commented that perhaps I ought to give myself a chance to get in shape.   “After all, you aren’t twenty five any more, it takes longer for your body to recover.”

Of course, this elicited a bit of a grumble, but I had to acknowledge that I am staring sixty in the face, and June isn’t that far away.  So I cut back to three days a week, and I find that my body is much happier with me.  If things keep on this way, after next week I will start going four days a week and see how it goes.

I have been to Texas since we last were together here at The Havens.   I visited my older sister for a few days, took my quilt to her quilt guild to be admired (which it was).   I find I am quite the anachronism as pretty much everybody does their quilting by machine nowadays.   I chose to hand quilt the baby quilt so I could work powerful protective and loving energy into it.   I don’t think you get the same result with a machine.

While I was in San Antonio, I was escorted about to some of the numerous stores that sell quilt fabric there.  I felt much like a kid in a candy store with only five cents to spend, but I came home with a lot of beautiful stuff, including the rest of the fabrics I need for the next quilt I am going to make, which will be for Jesse and Lynette.   I have the strips cut out, but have not started sewing them together yet.   Soon.

Another thing that has happened is that young Mallory has gone blind.   Several trips to the vet and we discovered that the lesions she had were the symptom of a deterioration that appears to be congenital.   We believe she may be able to see large dark and light areas sketchily, although lately I doubt she even has that.    It hasn’t slowed her down much.   She still plays chase games with Impy and they wrestle.   He chirps at her so she can locate him, and he is very kind about now cheating in the games and sneaking away from where she last heard him.

Occasionally she gets confused as to where she is, but that is happening less and less.   She really gives us a dirty look if we leave the chairs out from the dining table and she runs into one.   Also, we have had to acquire a trash can with a lid for the kitchen as the heightened sensitivity of her sense of smell has led her astray in that direction.    She stole a chicken bone out of it the other day; I guess it just smelled too good to ignore.

So, the vegetable garden has seeds planted in it, but nothing is up yet.   No big surrprise there.   Soon.

So, I shall go off to give the latest massage and talk to you all later.

 

 

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Mini ice storm

I’m so glad that the mini ice storm we had yesterday was just that, very mini.   It is so odd to go outside and hear the trees rattling in the breeze.  It all sounds so different, but NOTHING like the last time when we felt like we were listening to the war as the trees cracked and broke and smashed to the ground.

Instead, the string of LED lights we have on the back porch provided us with something stunning to look out in the early morning.

It’s really hard to photograph such bright lights in the dawn’s early light.   But you can see how the little icicles that formed on the string pick up the glow of light from the light they are hanging off.   So very very cool.   I think that this is the effect that the “icicle lights” would like to give and don’t.

By the way, I hasten to explain that these are not Christmas decorations in this application.   Many years ago we discovered that if we strung mini lights up around the back porch they were even more effective than a bug light as a porch light.   Each individual light is small enough that it doesn’t attract swarms of bugs.   They are all away from the door.   So when you go out at night, you get plenty of illumination and you don’t have 900,000 moths and mosquitoes following you in.

I have had a most amusing morning indeed.   My email contained numerous items that made me laugh heartily.   Laughter is always good.   Jim is watching the 49ers game, which he does not know how turns out (although I do)(Tee hee).   I am completing a couple of potholders I created a couple of days ago and then I will address myself to the little quilted piece I made yesterday in my quilting class.  It needs to be backed, quilted and bound.  Later on we will go visit some of our good friends and Jim will learn to smoke cheese and we and the group of people we are spending the afternoon with will have a very good time.

May all your ice storms be small and beautiful, and may your day be amusing and pleasant.

 

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Oasis

We have had record breaking heat in the Ozarks the last few days.  Several times the temperature has risen to 109ºF (42.8°C) in the middle of the day.  The humidity has been so low that the heat index has actually been negative, which I suppose is a blessing of sorts.

Needless to say, we have been watering the gardens assiduously in order to help them stay happy during this heat wave.   We are so blessed that our community is served by wells that run deep into an aquifer that is readily replenished during the spring rains (since we live in a karst limestone area).   There are lots of places here in the Ozarks that get their water from reservoirs, and when it is hot and dry they do not have the luxury of watering gardens as the water must be conserved for essentials like drinking and bathing.   But the water is not free, and I await my next month’s water bill with a certain amount of dread.

Still, the mature trees around here are worth quite a lot; according to some studies mature trees add approximately 2% to the value of a property.  I have also read studies that claim that each tree is worth around $1500.   Whatever they are actually worth, I am willing to spend a few dollars to keep them alive.   Of course, I love my day lilies and hostas too, so I willingly water them.   The trees get water peripherally while I water the landscape plantings.

One of the side benefits of running the sprinkler is the amusement I get from watching the birds.   When it is so hot, they flock to the spray from the sprinklers, and disport themselves gaily, obviously completely enjoying the cool shower.   The cardinals sit in the shrubs and bathe, the robins just stand in the spray and meditate.   The grackles hunt for the bugs that are disturbed by the water, occasionally shaking the cooling drops off their gleaming iridescent bodies.   Right now we have baby grackles that are following their parents around, begging for morsels.  The small birds also enjoy cooling effects of the water.

Yesterday when we were sitting in our pool cooling off, one of the male gold finches stopped by and scolded us severely.   Apparently the lack of niger seed in the finch feeder was the problem.   So, after I was done bathing, I filled the feeder.   The finches are really enjoying it today.   It hangs in the shade, and I’m sure it is much more pleasant to land on a full feeder and feast in the shade of the elm tree rather than rummage around for seeds out in the hot sun.

The pond is quite popular right now too.  The  frogs are utilizing the water along with the dragon flies; the water source in the waterfall is used by all the resident birds.   However, there are some of them who prefer the bird bath, and I like it too as it is the view from my dining room window.   My favorite time is when the young fledglings are taking bathing lessons, but I enjoy watching it all the time.

The birds are not the only denizens of the yard that use the bird bath.    Our bees need a lot of water right now, as they drink large quantities of water and then fly off to the hive and use its evaporative properties to keep the hive cool.

Usually bees are a little camera shy, but this one was so intent on the water that I was able to put the lens right up next to her and use my super macro function to capture her proboscis extended for her drink.

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Interesting times

Last night I was having such a vivid dream.   It was wartime and the air raid sirens were going off.   I knew I had to get to my bomb shelter, but I had a nice bowl of stew that I was eating.   So I was carefully carrying my bowl of stew to the shelter, which was about the size of a dog house and shaped very like that only made of concrete with a sturdy door.   I was crouched down to enter the structure when suddenly Jim elbowed me in the side and said “Wake up.   The tornado sirens are going off.”

A wild burst of adrenalin woke me enough to get me out of bed and headed into my clothes, but I was not awake enough to think that all that might be easier if I reached over and turned on my bedside lamp….  So in the confusing dark I put on Jim’s long john bottoms and said, “Geez, these are Jim’s, where are my effing pants anyway” and continued stumbling around in the dark until I was dressed.   Grabbed my rings off the ring holder and shoved them in my jewelry box, toted it to the basket and put it in the basket.   Added the massage money pouch, the checks from yesterday’s work and the checkbook and my purse.   Forgot the camera.

Jim was over at the computer looking at the radar and said,  ”Don’t worry.  We have plenty of time.   The line of storms is still two counties over, we probably have a good 20 minutes before they get here.   I truly bless technology for the long warning we have when this sort of weather phenomenon approaches, I really do.

Anyway, I proceeded to collect the couple of dragons and their hoards that we generally take to the shelter with us.   Got the dog’s leash, corralled Mallory and incarcerated her in the hell hole (according to her) that is her cat transport basket.

There is something about the wail of a tornado siren that keeps your adrenalin level up.   It must be the rising and falling pitch coordinated with the doppler effect caused by the fact that the whole siren structure rotates as it sounds.   Anyway, my adrenalin was sufficiently high.

Off to the west, you could see the darkness of the towering clouds that contained the tornado; impressive bursts of lightning were streaking all directions from it.   The wind was getting pretty meaningful, and the storm line was within 10 miles when we proceeded out to the shelter: cat, dog, and dragons in hand.   We hunkered down in the dim light of our emergency lantern, and wound up the hand cranked radio to listen to the weather watchers reporting on the damage to the west of us.

Suddenly the wind became etremely fierce, and Jim finally shut the door of the root cellar.   Mallory was complaining bitterly about the treatment she was receiving, informing us that being in the basket was stupid, annoying and by God why couldn’t she be out of there and not only that but what was that awful banshee noise that surrounded us and make it quit.  NOW.  NEOOWW.  Ruby was curled up on her carpet piece on the gravel of the root cellar floor, accustomed to our weird intermittent nocturnal migrations thence accompanied by distressing noise not the least was the vociferous complaints of the stupid cat.

“Things” thumped against the door of the root cellar, the wind became a screaming fury outside.   After a time, the radio informed us that the storm had moved off to the north and west and we could emerge from our shelters.   So we did.

Thankfully, the house was still there intact and we went inside.   After a while, the power came back on and our adrenalin levels dropped to a level where sleep was again possible, and so we went to bed.

This morning, we assessed the damage.   The tarp that shelters the wood shed had been shredded.   Literally.   It is one of those woven blue plastic things that you see everywhere, and it was interesting to me to see how it was torn into many pieces that were less than half an inch long.   There were longer ones too.   We spent the better part of an hour cleaning up shreds of blue plastic.  While we were doing that I discovered a large number of pieces of vinyl siding that had been dumped in our yard by the storm.   I figure that may have come from over by Buffalo where an entire trailer park was destroyed.

Out in the garden, the wind flipped the cold frame and shattered the glass.

It also moved the tomato cages around.

While we were walking around assessing the effects of the storm, we discovered that the swing at the east edge of the property was tipped over, no damage.   We just had to tip it upright.  The storm rotated the bird feeders a couple of turns too.   Out on the porch of the sauna is where Jim has stored the primary fermentation barrel of the winery, and it took that off the porch and deposited it in the labyrinth.   Looking at the path it had to have followed showed us that we definitely were experiencing some of the rotational winds at the edge of the tornado.

Turns out the real tornado travelled a path that is about a quarter of a mile from here as the crow flies.    The Tracker boat factory had some damage, lots of boats flipped around, some of them wound up on the Interstate.    And the wheelbarrows and garden stuff stored outside and Lowe’s and Sutherland’s (a couple of hardware stores) were thrown around their parking lots.

It really could have been a lot worse.   Our shingles are tacked on properly, is all I can say.   We didn’t lose a single one.

And Mallory is glad that the cat carrier is back in its corner, although she has been viewing it with grave suspicion all morning.

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I had it in mind to tell you all about the saga of the mop, but perhaps that can wait until tomroow.   Meanwhile, I leave you with the images of the potatoes I found out in the garden while I was cleaning up the bed where I intend to plant peas this year.  Those went into the soup.

And on the dining table we have enjoyed these daffodils and hellebore.

I can hear chain saws a couple of houses over.  Someone must have lost a tree to the storm.   Well, we live in interesting times weatherwise, and I’m sure they will get even more interesting.

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