Signs of Spring

Nice pics Pam. Good prairie spring. Great story of the cranes. You are lucky to have seen them, for sure.

good pics pam. Lookit all them geese, I thought we had lots outhere, but nothing compared to you.

Thanks ladies. :)

Linda their major migratory route is between Regina and Moose Jaw.....I'm praying they won't all be hanging around here. ;) Hopefully Sk will be sharing them with AB and the NWT. It is amazing tho watching how many nest in the fields near small ponds of water.

This year they each had a small V that was seperate from the others ....... last year they flew in mega sized V's. I'd never seen anything like it.....the sky was full of them and the ones in the distance made the sky black (all the V's seemed to meld into one).


This message was edited Mar 29, 2006 10:05 PM

This one is from last year....

Be sure to click on the thumbnail (the numbers are truly amazing)

This message was edited Mar 29, 2006 10:04 PM

I'd swear that was a swarm of Ontario blackflies!

Hi Andy, where have you been?

It is just downright ugly out there, and I'm with the "take the hibernation pill until it's over" people. This part of spring is not the part I dream about. Only the geese like the cold blowing rain/snow showers and the muck. I'll be out pumping the shed if anyone is looking for me.

But the snow is sure disappearing and that's a good thing.

See my 'germinating' post, echoes... that's what's been keeping me busy!

robins here for a week or so, sedums are up, lots of geese, lots of mud, now getting quad stuck instead of tractor, dog is a disaster every morning and evening after chores (glad i got the liner for the new van) which by the way is cooool. that hands free phone thing with voice recognition and heated seats are my two new favourite things. (as far as ride and handling goes i like the old one better)

and oh yes anne and i will be setting up the greenhouse/sun room tomorrow so i can start bringing plugs home hmmmm what will i get

Well finally I have my first flowers open...my Erica carnea 'Springwood Pink' literally opened within 3 days of the snow melting. Most of the garden is still under 4 feet of snow, but the bed closest the house melted out 3 days ago. Lots of crocus sprouting but the Erica won the race.

Lynn get some more of that purple salvia you had last year. I remembered to get some seed for it, just waiting for it to sprout. Mud yes, I can relate.

Beautiful Todd, boy when it starts it they come fast don't they

Good morning all.
My first crocus opened on March 31! Bright yellow. Yesterday there were lots of buds, but no sun. This morning, over a dozen are opening. Yellow, white, deep purple and lavendar with stripes (Pickwick?) These are large crocus. So pretty. Several perennials are up, and lots of bulbs, but nothing else blooming yet. BAM
Boy, I had forgotten how immense the prairies are! What pictures, Lilypons! Like you could stand there and see forever, without any end. Amazing.

LOL Andy that is exactly what it looked like........best keep that in mind Sofer (after all the Black Flies are known to be Canada's northern line of defense. ;)

BAM since I don't have to do daily chores out there (like Lynn and echoes) I must admit I love this time of year and the openess of the plains. Not being closed in and seeing forever gives me such a wonderful feeling of freedom. We explored a little creek, admired the new calves and foals, took in the wildlife (pretty obvious now) and came back with mud up to our knees. Beauty here is much more subtle but ooooooooh how prairie eyes appreciate it (both at home and away).

The weekly sitcom Corner Gas is filmed nearby and the crew often say that the non-prairie actors are often seen pulling up a chair just to check out the sky (esp. a prairie sunrise/sunset). Course it could also be that there isn't much else to keep them amused there. ;)

Checking out the south house bed yesterday i saw a new hint of pink under the leaves - clearing them off revealed.....these! Peony shoots! This particular peony which is a very deep rose came from my Aunt Pat's garden about 10 years ago when they had to leave their house . She called me one morning in Sept. to say they were moving out in a few days and a neighbor and I ( I didnt have a car at the time) loaded up her car with pots and trays etc and went and dug up a car load of perennials. I dont know how old the peony was - I was only able to get out a chunk of the root. Planted it in this spot and it bloomed the following year!
And that reminds me I better go and check on her Fern leaf Peony which is in a slightly shaderier spot but always up early.

Congratulations fancy!!! Just read your upper post and the current one. You've given me hope that something *might* be popping up here........now to go explore my backyard (and check out my Fern Leaf Peony).

Pam just went and looked - a few shoots on the FernLeaf too! And some reticulata Iris about to open!

You are ahead of me.........just looked and the only thing that's up is a few Tulip shoots (on the warmest side of the house). Everything here is still huddling underground. Prolly a good thing because we could (will) still get some nasty frost.

Something else showed up with the disappearance of the snow.......








one that didn't make it through the winter. Was tempted to pick it up for a succulent garden decoration but we already have a skull in better shape.

Ok signs of spring. Feast your eyes on this april 2nd day. Zihuatanejo. Just got back. It made me hungry to get home and start growing. Boy was it ugly when I was gone. There was snow at 4000Ft last night. But now that I'm home it will be over 60F all next week. The beach I just left.

another sign of spring here in Perth, the back yard is criss crossed with dirt bike tracks....teenaged boys with spring fever!

happy spring!

Sue

This in the south house bed yesterday!

Sofer what a feast for the eyes (and I bet you and your DW enjoyed every minute of it).

Carol looking fantastic......green eyes are turning blue again here (at long last we're are starting to catch up with the rest of the country).

Sue isn't wonderful to see them *out* of the house. ;)

Ü Spring break-up. 19 degrees Celcius here today. Ü

Ahh I used to live on a river in Michigan and when the ice broke up my buddy and i would climb out on the floaters and ride to the next bank. How stupid but fun. Our dogs would ride with us.

Yeah but we did it right. We greased up our skin and then greased our long johns. Then we tied on our nail shoes. then we put on our winter wool and headed out. We had life jackets and long poles to guide the ice flows down the river and keep away from the snags. It was fun. We never got anyone else to get on cause they wern't as smart as Tom and I were. Hee Hee. Our dogs taught us how to do it cause they crossed the river on the ice by mistake and we had to go get them. Don't tell my mom.

fancy are you sure you live in calgary??? nothing is doin anythin in my yard and we're supposed to be ahead of you (well in everything but hockey)

my latest signs of spring - ran in shorts and a tee this morning

took the heat housers off the tractors - very tempting of fate for sure

brought home 600 odd plugs from the greenhouse today - transplanting coming up soon

ROFLMBO

Sorta like those Ontario and Quebec peeps that have been very, very quiet lately....maybe they are hoping none of us noticed that Toronto had almost white out conditions two days ago (no accumulation though) and temps below 0 C. BTW the Ontario person that emailed it to me blamed it on a letter I sent to him...said it brought Moose Jaw weather with it. I was very happy to inform him we've been sitting at around 17-19 C all week. :^))

This message was edited Apr 6, 2006 12:53 AM

Ontario is on a see saw lately, one day it's white outs and the next it's mid teens. If you don't like the weather just wait a hour, it'll change.

Today is forecast for 15C and more snow by Sat. Only in Canada.....

Sorry about that Lynn!

Well see I have this one bed that runs along the south side of the house and there is a brick patio on the other side - I call it my pushing the zone bed. and thats where I put experiments. But it is also full of spring bulbs (and the rhubarb) so things always come up early there.

And - yesterday in another south bed (but not such a 'hot' one) I found blooms on a couple of the new hepaticas I put in last spring!

It has been raining off and on for 3 days now and the night time temps are at , or just below freezing, occasionally a bit above! Should really push things along!

carol

Sunkeeper your news has Ginny's bottom lip dragging on the ground for sure now. ;)

Carol (must admit I love your handle fancy too) it'd be the

My bottom lip is being held up staunchly :-) Mostly because the forecast for my area is calling for a high of 9 today, 6 tomorrow, and up to 14 by Tuesday, with a chance of either rain or snow on Friday. I'm bettin' on either rain or very wet snow very early in the morning. Belwood is a bit north and east of me.

Pam the hocky comment went right by me! I dont follow sports except maybe for figure skating and my TV is dea, I dont even read the sports section of the paper so had no idea the Oilers had lost to the flames!

carol

p.s. Fancy is the name of one of my dogs, van is part of my last name.

St. John's update.....we finally got some rain! Its the first time since December that we had just rain, rather than snow changing to rain. My back yard is now down to 2.5 feet of snow...I might see the lawn by May 1. My front lawn is pretty much snow-free and the next sunny day should result in quite a crop of crocus which are starting to show colour. Fancyvan, my iris reticulata are about 2" high...maybe open in the next 10 days, so they might be only a couple of week behind you. Maybe winter is finally coming to an end.

Well down here in the southern part of canada we have had rain for 5 days. Today the most with 1/2". Finally our water table is rising. Water standing everywhere but ground still frozen in some areas. Though this rain is thawing lots and soon I begin the transplants. I went up in the mountains today in the snow behind my house and scored a big log with lots of branches that is all rotted for the new bed. Boy are the bugs going to love this one.

The Winnipeg folks are just gunna love hearing that Steve. Do the rivers in Montana drain into North Dakota?

The weather channel is showing the Red River rising. Echoes hows the Ark building coming???

BTW since you mentioned bugs........does the Recluse Spider survive Montana winters?

Everywhere drains into North Dakota. It is the bottom of America. Ha Ha For some reason all Montanans make fun of North Dakotans. I don't know why but all blonde jokes are North Dakota jokes here in Montana. I drove through North Dakota last fall and found it beautiful. I crossed along the US 2 corridor. I loved all the ponds and puddles across the entire area. Then when I got to the Red River Valley I was awestruck. What soils, yup ya know !!!!! That, you betcha, has to be the greatest soil in America yah think? Yah, you can grow anything there, you know, if it can handle the cold, yah. I, you know, never knew that, yah, there was such a wonderful place in the States, you know. By golly youbetcha.