Finally, some average M.R. weather

[Cindi]

5:30 P.M. it is +9 celsius, +48 F.  Now this is our average weather, rainy, cloudy, but nice.  The bees weren't out today because of the precipitation, but I bet they are happy about being a little bit warmer too.  Great day.  Cindi

[Understudy]

Yeah it was chilly here in Florida also. We had a high of 68F/20C. darn cold if you ask me.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Brendhan, is your climate very warm all year around?  I love the heat and sun, beyond your wildest dreams.

But it is actually a wonderful thing to have a cold season.  It makes you appreciate those beautiful long days of summer that you KNOW are going to be coming.  I love this time of year.  All the deciduous trees have gone into winter hibernation.  They look like sticks.  But, like what is occurring very quickly now is the buds swelling, and I know that in a month or so, that the stick winter trees will set out their leaves and flowers in full force.  I know that by May our world will be green, 100% (among other colours).  There will be no more stick trees, they will be full, green leaf trees. 

I don't think that I would change my environment for the world.  I love the seasons, and cherish every day that we have when the summer arrives.

The birds are starting to come from their migration homes.  The first that I ever hear in the spring is the Varied Thrush, it has a single note, followed by other single notes in different pitches.  It is a beautiful song, and I know spring is coming when this comes to the depths of my senses.

The Towhees begin to call more.  They sound like a cat meowing, interesting how a bird can sound like that.  I told my sister today to listen for the Towhee, it sounds like a cat meowing.    She laughed her guts out.  Her husband and her have been looking for days for the little cat that they keep hearing call, but can never find it.  She even had her kids looking for it, they couldn't find it, only saw little birds.  That was funny.  So I explained that the likelihood of a cat around here with so many dogs is remote.  Next time they hear the cat meow, look to the bushes, there they will see the little Towhew. 

Funny things about life.  Man can I ramble, but it is OK.  Great day.  Great day.  Cindi

[SteveSC]

You have a PM Cindi....

[Understudy]

Cindi:

Yeah, I hear that a lot from people up north, that they need the seasons.

Me, I am shallow. I like heat and humidity.

I see no reason to freeze my butt off to appreciate the warmer weather. Been there done that. :)

My climate basically has two seasons, hot and hotter. It's great. The only thing to make it better is the humidity.

I cherish may days of frozen margaritas in december when my northern friends are outside scraping ice off their cars making sure the engine block is plugged into the heater. Or when they are shoveling their sidewalk while I am rinising beach sand from my toes. So I can't make snow angels or snowmen. I can make sand castles and outdoor BBQ.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[wtiger]

Bleh.  You havn't BBQ'd until you've BBQ'd some porksteaks or ribeyes to perfection with a -6° F windchill and snow on the ground.  :)

[Cindi]

Brendhan.  You have some HOT points for sure!!! LOL.

I had the pleasure of visiting Fiji about 10 years ago with my husband.  What a glorious time we had.  We left on the 1st of December and stayed for two weeks.  The weather was incredibly hot.  I guess it was their summer in that land.  We left our climate with cold, rain, dingy, dull days.  To be in a place where it was hot, hot, hot in a reasonably short time never ceases to amaze me.

It actually was too hot for my likings.  We swam in the pool at our hotel because the ocean was far too warm.  It was unpleasantly warm actually.  BUT, we were able to take a 3 day cruise during our stay, doing the tourist snorkeling stuff they they do.  The waters off the island were wonderful.  They were not too warm and I can remember hours and hours we would snorkel and observe the beautiful coral reefs and the intriguing life that lives there.  It was nothing short of a dream.

I would love to have warm weather year round actually, now and then.  That is why I think some day down the road that we will spent winters in the south if we choose and spend our summers at our home.  That way we can choose to have winter, summer, or whatever climate we could get into, depending on our whim.  Now that is a dream.   Sounds good on paper, but one never knows what the future may bring.

My husband barbequed steak tonight on the barbie.  It was quite chilly and dark, but he mustered up his energy, put on a coat, brought out the flashlight, and other than the dark and cold, I felt like we were in the midst of midnight summers dream.  All my best.  Cindi

[Cindi]

SteveSC, ya I know, but my details of beekeeping climate in the Pacific Northwest may take a bit of time to type, it will be lengthy, so hold tight.  I usually spend a good amount of time on the forum in the morning and will respond then.  Greatest of days.  Cindi

[reinbeau]

Last night was warm, 9°F, better than 6°F the night before.  Right now it's 13.3°F, but it's not as windy as yesterday, it only got up to 24° and the wind howled - bitterly cold!  Of course this bitter cold snap has caused the demise of our bees, but such is life.  :-\

I do love the seasons, my problem with this cold is there isn't any snow out there - if there's no snow I want spring!  That's my favorite season, the greening of the earth, I love it.

The juncos are out there enforce eating, along with the mourning doves, blue jays, white-throated sparrows, english sparrows, cardinals, titmice and chicadees.  The red-bellied woodpecker is at the suet, along with downy and hairy woodpeckers.  I've even had flocks of cowbirds, which is unusual in this weather, they are usually down south, poor things must have been confused with the warmth we had in early January. 

My neighbor has a holly tree that had more berries on it than it ever has - and the robins have found it.  The tree was literally crawling with robins, at least 60 or 70 of them were flowing in and out of the tree, the branches were quivering with the robins eating! 

I've got snowdrops out there shivering, the little blossoms are frozen solid.  I hope they can thaw and bloom a bit!

[Cindi]

The juncos are out there enforce eating, along with the mourning doves, blue jays, white-throated sparrows, english sparrows, cardinals, titmice and chicadees.  The red-bellied woodpecker is at the suet, along with downy and hairy woodpeckers.  I've even had flocks of cowbirds, which is unusual in this weather, they are usually down south, poor things must have been confused with the warmth we had in early January. 

Ann, sounds like you have a beautiful array of birds that come to your area.  That is good.  We have many too.  Many have their seasons.

For example, the doves we have here are called the band tailed pigeons.  They come en masse for a couple of weeks in the summer then head off somewhere else.  They come after the red alderberry berries and then are gone til next year.  Off to some better eating places.  They are beautiful when they are frightened by something and they all take flight, very loud and discernable, love it.

The black-capped chickadees are the ones that I love.  They live hear year round, but in the spring they have a beautiful song.  It sounds like a whistle I used to call my horse with, two wistle notes, each in a different pitch, two more in the same two different pitches, and then the chickadeedeedee sound.  Interesting.  Can you picture this sound?  Do you have the black-capped chickadee.

The brown headed cowbirds.  I await their arrival every year.  They don't come until about June.  I love the guteral gluck gluck sound they make in their throats, so pretty.

The other one that I anxiously await is the red winged blackbird.  Again a very distinctive sound.

Yikes!!!  Now I am getting excited, as you do with the spring.  The so many different species of birds that we have in the spring and summer and one of the most beautiful sounds in the world to my ears.

One year I spent time at my home counting the different species of birds that visited, some stayed, some left for other places.  It was 32.  That is many for sure.  I kept a list of them.  I do not see some of these birds anymore though.  I think that maybe it has alot to do with the city that is encroaching into our neck of the woods and that is sad, but you cannot stop this.

We have many pileated woodpeckers around our property.  I love to listen to them drum on things.  They really like the metal gate that we had for our horses.  Imagine that.  Why would they pick something so hard, think it would give them a headache.  Greatest of days.  Cindi

[Wis Bee]

     The Pileated woodpeckers are pretty cool, here we had 14 cardinals at one time
     at the feeder over the weekend.

    Winter weather has arrived here with a passion, I don't believe it has been
    above 0 F for the last 4 days. Early morning temperatures have been -10 to -14 F.

    The local weathermen are predicting we may see 6 F today though, with a warming
    trend to the mid-teens to maybe even 20 F later in the week. Wow, I will have to break
    out my short sleeved shirts.

    I hope my bees are not frozen  :( :(

[Trot]

Poor creatures - you all... :shock:

It must be hard trying to decide if it's time for shorts or not? :-D

Well, I think that a short curl-up on the couch by the fireplace will do me good?
It's been about a month now with temperature around minus 30 C and about every other day even around 40 C - below.
They predicted just yesterday that this will be with us till the end of the month...

Maybe I should forego my nap and look for my short-sleeved shirt? Our days are nice and sunny too and quite warm... Around 20 C below... :'(

But there is one thing that ve can all look forward to?  By July - all this is surely going to change?  I would think. .  ?  :-\ ;)

Regards,
Trot

[wtiger]

It's near 50 degrees here today.  What a break.  Up until about noon they were predicting a high in the mid 30s.  Which would have been warmer than it's been in weeks.  All the better.  Although they're still predicting it to go back to the teens.  At least it's not single digits.

[Michael Bush]

All the way up to 14 F ABOVE this morning here.  Quite a relief.

[Cindi]

Trot, holy crow!!  I did not realize that your climate was a cold as it is, -30 C, now that is very very cold.  Never have I encountered something that type of cold.  I think that we dipped to about -2 C for about a week and I was cryin'.  Don't like the cold, give me the warm temperatures anytime.

We are at +7 C  (+44 F), right now, it is 7:15 P.M.  That is our average temperatures coming back into place, and that in my mind is a good thing.  Greatest of days.  Cindi

[Trot]

Cindi,
yes it is that cold - with wind chill of course is even worse. I live in town and there is not much breeze - one can stand it to a point. Even our dog coughs, when she goes out for a pee... She sure don't waste no time coming back though, heee....
But when I go to my son's place?!  He is on edge of town and facing north...
Boy, sometimes I get a bit worried - that I may not make it from the truck to the door...
Yesterday we were lucky, it warmed up to minus 12, for few hours. By nine o'clock at night, it was minus 29 again...
Bee smart - stay warm...

Regards,
Trot