March wonders
One of the most common weather proverbs heard at this time of year is "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." Today is the first Monday of March here on the mesa, and the lion is still lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce with a grab bag of conditions including rain, hail, snow, graupel, and especially wind. To a person, wind seems to be the least-liked element in the spring bag. But wind melts snow and ice, and allows mud to dry, resulting in an easier walking surface. It churns the water in lakes, enabling nutrients to come alive for fish and other creatures. And it creates holes in the ice, through which the flowers of spring will eventually emerge. Exploring the remaining snow and mud with camera in hand, I found these two - green and waiting - for the right time to produce further growth. They are rather bland now, not particularly pretty or flashy, but lurking, like the lion, just beneath the ice.
The wind and accompanying relative warmth completely cleared the stock tank of ice, which, up until this week, was four inches thick. Now, the water moves with the breeze, reflecting the sky.
The winds aloft have been howling this week, as reflected in an entire collection of weird and amazing cloud formations.
Happy Birthday to Susie S., Jan, Brenda, Andrea, Debra, Jean, Sam G., Sam W., Sara, and Carol, who were born in March, and Happy Anniversary to Steve and Peggy, Debbie and Rock.
until next Monday,
DB
a passion for the [email protected]
Comments
Happy Birthday my Aries sister!
It's beginning to be kite weather, and, ah, the tease of your green leaves to give us gardening fever. I have succumbed, and have just one blue lupine baby peaking its head out of the soil of a tray under grow lights. Thirty tomato seeds waiting in their warm trays in a darkened corner on the under-the-cabinet water heater (no need for heat mats, here) in what used to look like a kitchen. Perhaps the lion is the gardening beast inside many of us. Have a wonderful week, you two. The harbingers of spring causes me to journey the continent (via the internet) in search of seeds. My seed file is in need of more packets... And your little plants under ice give me hope.