Archives for category: winter

OK, so this measurement is really two days old, and I don’t know how to read the scale anyhow, but whatever, I’ve got a new metric!

Note to self: Do not put directions in your pocket and then forget which pocket. Do put the directions in a baggie and nail it on the post near the instrument (at least until you remember what the directions are). Going in situ is almost always the lazy way; it’s like writing set-out information right on the jug instead of keeping a notebook, for example. Why create a new information flow if you can stack functions by leveraging an old one?

Anyhow, posting to a blog doesn’t count as work.

“We’ll pay for this!” is what Mainers say whenever anything good happens, if you define 70° F weather in the third week of March as good. Those lilac buds will pay for their temerity when a terrible snow storm comes in April — as they have! — and freezes everything.

Still, the insects and the plants and the birds and even the incredibly fat, the corpulent squirrels, the squirrels who can hardly drag themselves off the ground and into the trees: They are all acting like winter is over. Maybe they’re right!

Oh, and the lilac bushes are very happy in this spot; they’ve doubled in size in about two years, and are putting out new branches all the time. The sun is morning to late afternoon, but the soil is terrible: Hard clay and rock. Go figure!

Noting a confession: I tweaked the image slightly in Photoboost to make the buds stand out a bit more.

Right now it’s 64° F (on March 18). So I thought I’d get ahead of myself a little and see whether the soil could be worked. I got a pitchfork from the barn and turned over the compost, and then shoved it into a squash mound to see how deep the tines would go before they hit something solid meaning frozen.

About an inch and a half. So I guess I don’t have to be checking the milk jugs for sprouting seeds any time real soon.

On the bright side, a week ago the compost was frozen. So the pile is generating heat, which is a win. Also insects — probably fruit flies from the coffee grounds — but that’s another story.

Here, the light snow ups the contrast to show some cuke vines I didn’t rip up last fall. Maybe I should, though; apparently I shouldn’t leave “crop debris” lying about, because bugs winter over in them. Dang. Something to watch for.

Guess I should clean out this compost bin, too, especially since the vines aren’t rotting at all.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 31 other followers