Well, last month the main topic was the abnormally warm weather we’ve had this past winter. That continued to be the case right through March up to and a bit past the Spring Equinox. Then this past Saturday, winter decided to take one last whack at us. Beginning early in the morning, a fine snow began falling at a great clip, rapidly accumulating. Weather forecasters had already put out the winter storm warning so I was stocked up grocery-wise in case I was snowed in. There had been a snow-fall several days before of about four inches.
By the time the snow had tapered off Sunday morning, there was sixteen inches of fresh snow on the ground on top of what we already had. Some places got as much as two feet. In all, I think we got more snow the first week of spring than fell all winter. Global wierding indeed.
Robins must listen to the weather forecast as they showed up in the front yard, the day before the storm, filling themselves up on berries from my two hawthorn trees, dislodging some cedar waxwings which had begun to feed.
The robins still had their winter plumage, which consists a large white patch at the base of their tails, spreading up to their abdomens, giving them the look of wearing their long undies. Being larger than the waxwings, they dominated the trees, though a few pine siskins and a house finch managed to sneak in a few bites.
Several weeks prior to this, I saw several small flocks of geese migrating overhead on their way back north. Thanks to the mild winter, there is open water for them to land on when they stop to rest. Lake Winnipesauki had ice-out declared on March 17, beating the old record of March 18 set back in 2016. Never mind what the calendar says, spring seems to be coming earlier every year. To add to the wierdness, Easter falls on the last day of the month with April Fools Day coming the very next day.
Now the weather has warmed above freezing again, melting away the snow. It should be mostly gone by Easter, just over a week after it dumped on us. A solar eclipse will be happening on April 8, but given how mercurial the weather is here, it may be cloudy when it happens. What next?
Well, here’s to hoping April won’t be too crazy. Have a happy Easter.
At the beginning of each month I use Open Office to create a calendar day for that month which gets stuck on the fridge. The Drawing program is the best one for building a month. I insert a picture, usually a humorous one, near the top, then using the Insert Table function, I create a table for putting in the days and weeks of the month.
I then mark in some holidays of the month while leaving other days open so I can note appointments and other events on them.
For February, there’s Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Groundhog’s Day (February 2nd) is an odd holiday which we inherited from the Pennsylvania Germans who emigrated here back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The notion was that if the groundhog (we call them woodchucks here on the US east coast) comes out of his burrow and spots his shadow on this day he will return to his hole to hibernate another six weeks, while no shadow meant an early spring. The fact that there are precisely six weeks between February 2 and the Spring Equinox, irregardless of whether or not the weather is clear doesn’t seem to matter. That is apparently beside the point. It’s an excuse for a small group of men to dress up in formal wear and drag out some poor woodchuck and hold him up the waiting cameras.
February 2nd is also known as Candlemas, a Christian feast day celebrating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple purportedly 40 days after his birth. It is also called Imbolc or Saint Bridget’s Day although traditionally that is actually celebrated the day before. The origins of Imbolc are a little more uncertain than Candlemas but it seems to go back to early Medieval times.
February 14th is Valentine’s Day, also a Christian holiday commemorating the martyrdom of Saint Valentine. There were apparently several men named Valentine, dating back to late Roman times. The custom of giving flowers, sweets and other gifts seems to have originated in Britain. In Slovenia Saint Valentine was the patron of spring, good health as well as of beekeepers and pilgrims. This sounds far more benign than the current commercialized bacchanalia of chocolates that cram store shelves around this time, soon to be displaced by the avalanche of sugar poured out in celebration of Easter and Mother’s Day. Small wonder we’re all turning into diabetics.
There are a few lesser holidays such as President’s Day, celebrated on the third Monday of the month. If you do a Google seach, you’ll discover a plethora of holidays for each day of February: Carrot Cake Day, National Homemade Soup Day, National Peppermint Patty Day and so forth. Who comes up with these and more importantly why?
I prefer to keep it simple. Celebrate the birth of Saint Bridget, light a candle to her. Celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day the Slovenic way with perhaps little displays honoring good health, the spring to come and yes even beekeepers everywhere. Don’t forget to eat a bit of chocolate in their honor.
Well, another year has come and nearly gone. When I look out into the front yard this is the view I have.
The total lack of snow is quite notable. While we have had snowless Christmas’s before, they were few and far between back when I was young. It was more customary to have at least five inches of snow on the ground, if not more, by the beginning of the New Year. Now it seems to be more like every other year. Thanks to climate warming, this is the new norm.
The implications for gardening are hard to measure. With insufficient snow pack, some plants cannot make it through the winter should there be a sudden severe cold snap. Weed and insect pests which might have died from the cold can now make it through to spring. All this requires adjustment on my part when planning a garden. What will do best come summer? What soil amendments will be needed? How heavy or light will the rain be? This past year was quite wet, a change from the semi-drought conditions of the past decade. But these are questions that have always come up no matter what climate change has done or not done.
Many months lie between now and spring allowing me to peruse the latest batch of seed catalogs and mull over what to try in 2024.
Fall foliage is past peak and either turned brown or fallen. The first few snow flakes of the coming winter got spat out of a dreary raw rainy sky yesterday along with a few pellets of sleet. Halloween and November are on the doorstep. Plenty of seasonal lawn ornaments, some cute, some ghoulish.
Already plenty of leaves to be raked up with more to come.
While there’s been no frost or freeze yet, the weather has been raw enough so that growing season has pretty much ended, except for the occasional fungi bursting out of the ground.
I find it hard to think of it as still fall, with the first day of winter still over a month away. Rather it seems more a curious pause between fall and winter. The brilliant colors of autumn have vanished but the snows of winter have yet to collect on the ground. This little segment of the year ought to have a name of its own. Possibly Ember Days, which in Christian calenders marked a period of time following the change of the seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) when fasting and prayer were done. There are a number of different types of celebrations done at this time of year, honoring the summer and the bountiful crops (if any) it produced, allowing food to be put up for the winter to come.
Given what a short period of time it is (roughly end of October to Thanksgiving, or whenever the snow begins falling in earnest) perhaps it might best be named the Quiet Time. A time for taking stock of the past year and begin preparing for the year yet to come. A time for peacefully appreciating what we have, rather than going berserk in the wild consumer bacchanalias that Thanksgiving and Christmas have been turned into.
Whatever it may be called, enjoy and have a happy season.
Cryptids or mysterious unidentified creatures are a popular topic for investigation. It doesn’t seem to matter that no actual physical trace of the beasts in question which would allow positive ID has ever been found. Just marveling about their possible existence seems to be enough.
Remember the Abominable Snowman (otherwise called a yeti)? I recall that being quite the thing for a while when I was younger. Books were written about the possibility of an unknown giant anthropoid living in the Himalayan mountains. They were described as being reddish-brown in color and would walk for impossibly long distances. Hollywood leapt on the bandwagon with their own creep-fests starring the strange beast, although for some reason they made them white instead reddish-brown (white fur costumes must have been cheaper).
The craze faded after a time and now the latest on this crytid is a news article reporting a yeti (excuse me, an idiot dressed up as a yeti) robbing a Russian theater. He got quickly arrested (once the Russian cops got through laughing). If there’s a real yeti out there, he must be cringing.
Bigfoot or Sasquach has fared slightly better. He never seems to go out of style. Over the years there has been a steady stream of sightings of the beast. Footprints have been photographed, odd calls reported, blurry pictures showing what’s obviously a chunky guy wearing a gorilla costume,
however no solid evidence such as bones, droppings or hair samples showing that such a being exists has turned up. Samples of hair submitted many years ago turned out to belong to a deer. While it’s still up in the air as to what’s really going on, my own theory is that some First Nation wise guys go out every so often and have a little fun with the dumb whites. After all if we’ll believe space aliens built the pyramids, then we’ll believe guys in monkey suits are really an unknown species of hominid. It’s always possible of course that there are giant ape-like beings roaming about, but if there are, they have enough sense to keep out of sight from us crazy humans.
Loch Ness has been in the news recently with yet another sighting of the mysterious Loch ‘monster’. While the article speaks of a single monster, it looks more to me like several critters, possibly otters cavorting in the water, though it’s difficult to get a sense of scale looking at the video. Unfortunately, CGI is so sophisticated now that you really have to take anything you see on the screen with a large grain of salt, these days.
Tabloids headlines bill the creature (or creatures) as ‘terrifying’ but it’s hard being scared of something which seems to be playing with such relish in the waters. Tourists, obviously unphased, flock every year hoping for a glimpse of the monster. Even if they don’t see anything, the Loch is still a beautiful place to visit, judging from all the photos. Here’s hoping ‘Nessie’ doesn’t get found too soon.
Nessie seems to have many counterparts throughout the world. Argentina’s Lake Nahuel Huapi boasts of a lake monster much like Nessie. Okanagan Lake in British Columbia is reputed to be the residence of a creature named Ogopogo. Chessie is another water creature which may be found in the Chesapeake Bay and it seems to have a cousin living in Lake Champlain called Champ. The darkness of lakes the world over has invited many such tales. Who know what might be lurking under those mysterious looking waves?
Far more intriguing are the stories found throughout the United States of mysterious giant birds. The First Nation tales of the Thunderbirds, spirit beings who protect humans from evil spirits, particularly water spirits. The Algonquins says the Thunderbirds were actually the ancestors of present-day humans and helped create the universe.
Fast forward to modern times and frequent accounts pop up, usually in Texas but also in other places of mysterious outsize birds which startle people. While most are misidentified known birds such as hawks, vultures or eagles, others might be unknown flying avians, not familiar to the witnesses. It’s often easy to misjudge the size of a bird especially when it’s at a distance so the definition of ‘giant’ may be up to debate. But like Sasquatch and Nessie, the reports persist.
So what to make of these stories and why do they continue in spite of no real physical evidence collaborating their reality? Another look at these creatures reveals one common element: they are all based on stories of supernatural beings. The Sasquatch is known to Northwestern Native Americans as sasq’ets, meaning ‘hairy man’ and has been viewed as a shape-shifting supernatural being which protects the forest. Water beast stories, which include those about Nessie, are a world-wide phenomenon based on a belief in water spirits and gods. In fact the Thunderbird itself is said to be the foe of evil water spirits. Like the Sasquatch, it also is a shape-shifter, engaged in a never-ending battle with hostile beings who are a threat to mankind.
Perhaps rather than futilely searching for ‘proof’ of these beings, it might be better to accept that they might really be elusive spirit forms, either beneficial or hostile, who co-exist with us. We’ve never lost our desire to witness beings awesome and inexplicable. While we might marvel at the wonders of other planets, exploding suns, shimmering galaxies and ominous black holes, they are far away, almost abstract. But the mystery beings populating our imagination and possibly our world as well, are much closer to home and lurking just out of the corner of our eyes.
