April is the month when you are unsure about how and when you will start your seedlings. The desire to get an early jump on the year is governed by the weather and the temperature of the soil. Often I start a few flats of greens in March with the hope of transplanting them into […]
Spring snow
When the rhyme, “April showers bring May flowers,” comes to mind, I’m sure that snow showers were not considered when it was written. But that is what happens all too often in New England at the beginning of the month. This has been a vacillating season with snow coming and going all too often. Last […]
A squirrel, fox and groundhog
Spring may be tardy this year with over a foot of snow still coating the ground. Prior to the early March storms, we were hoping for early flowering bulbs making their way through the frozen soil. That is unlikely for at least a few weeks as the piles of shoveled snow have melted and then […]
Tropical winds
Bicycling is one of my favorite outdoor activities. Once the temperatures go north of 50 degrees, I will bare my pale old-man legs and peddle throughout the area. Now that I am much further south than is typical and the temperatures are rarely below 70 I have few excuses not to be on my wheels. […]
Re-greening of the Keys
>For the second consecutive winter, we have migrated to the Florida Keys to better survive the nasty weather you often find in New England this time of year. This winter, however, we were unsure if our roost would be ready as Hurricane Irma’s aftermath rendered many homes and businesses in the Keys ruined. Luckily our […]
Super blue lunar eclipse moon (with a pelican thrown in)
Though I set an alarm for 5:45 am, Juana and I rise before it goes off in anticipation of a rare event: the confluence of two full moons a month (blue), close proximity to Earth (super), and a full lunar eclipse. Looking out our kitchen window in the Florida Keys while the coffee brews, the […]
Christmas Coat
The old Bing Crosby song, “White Christmas,” can make you pine for a lovely covering of snow on the ground as one wakes to greet the morning of the 25th. And today is one of the rare days when our celestial requests have been answered with a 4-5 inch fall overnight covering the dingy ground […]
The smell of snow
Even before I scanned the weather forecast, you could tell that it was going to snow. A clear solitude outside heralded its approach. The last of the oak leaves have dropped giving me the opportunity for one last rake. The Japanese maples were still stubbornly holding on to their cover as their terminal buds had […]
Hard Frost
All frosts are not created equal. The first often arrives in October as a sprinkling of powered sugar on the roof of my house and pickup truck. Unlike that sweet confection, it disappears with first light and is easy to miss if one is late to wake or not attentive. There are a few other […]
Late Fall
By the middle of Fall, most of the yard work is done. A cold spell or two has crushed the hostas wilting their leaves in a prelude to a collapsed desiccated skeleton. The golden rod has gone gray and the remains of astilbe stalks poke through the accumulating leaf litter. Most of the tree leaves […]