The Pansies Survived!

I'm still amazed at the ability of Pansies to flourish right through cold weather.  I keep attributing human feelings to them and thinking they'll be cold!  Of course there's no rational reason to think that.  They are actually adapted to flourish in the cool spring weather, and to struggle in mid-summer when it gets hot.  They got snowed on again, but popped right back up yesterday.

Late Thursday.

Saturday morning.

Late Saturday

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words so they say.  You don't want to hear the words, but here is the picture!

Saturday May 9, 2020

Further Afield

All the spring growth and blooms are on hold today and tomorrow, as the 'polar vortex' has parked itself overhead (8 miles up) and brought us back to freezing temperatures.  The Pansies are doing fine, but the dwarf Yellow Iris got frostbit last night.  The forecast says SNOW for tonight and tomorrow, a rare event in May!!!

Meanwhile, on the relatively warmer sunny days I've been wandering a little further from home with my confidence in my chair's battery restored.  Folks in Meaford have been tying white ribbons on shrubs, trees and posts to indicate support for health workers.  I wasn't sure whether this was a white ribbon or a leftover Hallowe'en decoration!

My first excursion off our street was around about  6 blocks to some friends house and back again.  They had a nice patch of Daffodils blooming in the sun.

And a new small white Magnolia.  I was actually there last year when they were planting it.

Down the street a big Willow was bright yellow against the blue sky.

Heading home I stopped to check out this bright pink flower which I think is a patch of Heather.

Back here at home, but out on the golf course you can see that they've been mowing the fairways and greens in preparation for summer - as soon as they're allowed to re-open.

I'll let you know how we survive our taste of winter tomorrow!

White-crowned Sparrow

Yesterday I spotted some movement on the mulched surface of the garden below my window and looked down.  It was a sparrow I hadn't seen before.  It was too close to use binoculars even, so it took a few pictures before we got a good look.

 I still wasn't sure at this point, but then Mrs. F.G. came to look and the rest of these photos are hers.

After a close look at these two photos it was obvious that this was a White-crowned Sparrow - no white patch on the throat and no inconspicuous yellow bits like the White-throated Sparrow.

Then this morning Mrs. F.G. spotted it sitting on the chair right outside the door.  It even seemed to look up at her, probably noticing the motion inside the window.  We wondered if it had hit the window, but it soon flew away, apparently ok.

The White-crowned Sparrow breeds in Alaska and arctic Canada, so it's just migrating through here now.  It winters in most of the continental United States and into Mexico.  This is the time of year we're most likely to see one.  I think I've only seen one once or twice before though, so I was pleased to see this one.

A Warm Day!

It was an all-too-brief taste of warmer days to come - sometime!  Yesterday it was sunny, blue skies and well up into the teens.  A number of flowers and plants just loved it!  Sadly, according to the forecast, it's over for now as you'll see if you read to the end.

The Pansies are doing great, even though they were snowed on four times two weeks ago.  I hope they're ready; they may get snowed on again later this week.

Pansies put on some striking different faces!

Our very small Forsythia, planted just last year, are in bloom.

The Hosta shoots out front look like actual leaves now.

And the leaves on our White Birch are bursting out.  You can actually see green!
 

Mrs. F.G. went out in the cold this morning and caught a close-up of our Magnolia.  Just planted last year, it's also about to bloom.  Looks as if the blooms will be a very pretty pink.

And I'm proud to say that our lawn has the only Dandelions I saw on the entire street.  The most popular hobby among the men on the street is maintaining a deep green spotless lawn.  Dandelions on a lawn pull down the appearance of the entire neighbourhood!  But I think they're nice and they provide early spring food for the bees.

*****

It was a cold April and it's going to be an even colder May, relative to normal temperatures.  The forecast says freezing level low temperatures at night for the rest of this week, with the possibility of snow Friday and Saturday!  On Saturday the forecast HIGH is 0°C!

Every now and then the Weather Network publishes a map of temperature anomalies - that is, the extent to which forecast temperatures are above or below normal.  This coming month we will sit in the greatest colder than normal anomaly on the planet thanx to that polar vortex!  Maybe it'll warm up in June!!!!

From the Archives

I'm reliving in my mind the many wonderful days I've spent walking in the woods in May, my favourite time of year.  I'm seeing posts on a number of blogs, notably Jacqueline's botanical wanderings in her Saratoga woods and waterways blog, illustrating the beautiful wildflowers that bloom now.  So I'm taking you back to May 2, 2015.

The bright yellow of the beautiful Trout Lily, its mottled leaves far more plentiful on the forest floor than the number of blooms.

Red Trillium.

Spring Beauty.

One of the earliest blooming, Dutchman's Breeches, said to look like a Dutchman's pantaloons hanging upside down on a laundry line.

The completely weird purple shoot of Blue Cohosh, a plant that grows so fast on a warm day in early May that you can almost watch it grow!

Bloodroot that flowers before the leaves unfold.  You can just see bits of the leaves curled around the stem on some of these blooms..

And finally Hepatica, the earliest of our spring wildflowers.

Hope you've enjoyed my archives from May 2nd, 2015!  For those of you wondering my battery issue seems to have been resolved, though I haven't gone beyond our own street while I'm still testing it.  A technician did visit promptly and told us that we'd been charging it wrong.  We hadn't been leaving it on overnight because the charger got so hot.  H left us a different charger to use, one with a smaller amperage and a fan so it doesn't get hot, and told us to lesve it on all night so that it gets a 'deep' charge.  We've done that and now it's staying above 90% after 6 laps of our street, the equivalent of 36 blocks.  So I think I'm safe.

Our Changing Bird Visitors

Just as dramatic as the early emergence of plants and flowers in spring is the changing bird population in our yard.  After Chickadees, Nuthatches, Woodpeckers and Goldfinch all winter, we suddenly have Robins, Grackles and other birds to watch.

The Robin is really the harbinger of spring, arriving in March, well before any plants have emerged.

We see more activity by Crows early in the spring too.  This one stopped right outside the window.

This Purple Finch only made a brief flying visit before continuing on further north.  I think the Juncos have left to go north and nest too.

We now have a pair of Mourning Doves that are obviously nesting nearby.  They come and forage several tines a day.

A Song Sparrow has been here quite a while now.  One or sometimes two of them forage right outside the window.  Easy to identify as long as you get a good view from the front!

We finally see Cardinals, though I`m sure they`ve been around during the winter, staying where there is more deep shelter in the Spruce trees.  This one landed and flew again so fast I almost missed the picture.

But it just flew to the other bird feeder stand and posed for me before leaving.

 Grackles have been around for awhile, but this one came close the other day.

And we still get a Downy Woodpecker every now and then, as well as Chickadees.

There are others that I never get pictures of, notably a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers that pass through the canopy feeding, spotted by sharp-eyed Mrs. F.G.  And I think we`re getting some warm sunny weather this afternoon so I can get outside and continue testing this battery.

Hope you`re enjoying these peaceful days!