The long view.

The weather forecast has become a special thing for me over the past year. Everyday, I like to record the temperature and conditions. It's been a great tool for looking back to remind myself what January last year was like. With spring on the horizon, I'm looking forward today.

The 10 day forecast from weather.com.



Not bad, but what about February? Will it be warm and seasonable? Or cold (as is typical) and blustery? The Farmers Almanac has a little to say about that. I'm in the Southeast zone.

FEBRUARY 2010:
temperature 46.5° (0.5° above avg.);
precipitation 4.5" (2" above avg. east, 1" below west);
Feb 1-4: Sunny, warm;
Feb 5-8: T-storms, then sunny, cold;
Feb 9-11: Showers, seasonable;
Feb 12-15: Sunny, chilly;
Feb 16-21: Rain and snow, then sunny, chilly;
Feb 22-24: Heavy rain, seasonable;
Feb 25-28: Snow showers, then sunny, cold.

So it looks like a repeat of last year. Warm days scattered among snow and rain. This weekend, we've got winter weather in the forecast again. My parents are supposed to be visiting again on Saturday. I'm hoping they can make it. They've got several large bags of 2-liter containers for me.

This morning, it's 32. Only 15 minutes ago, the thermometer read 30. Should be a nice day with sunshine and little wind. I'm going to bring some more firewood into the basement and spend an hour or two cleaning up from the flood I found yesterday.

11:02am - 43 degrees.

crocuses?



Larkspur



Cabbage, carrots.



Dianthus



Rudbeckia



A few stones around the shrub island. Many more to go.

The first tulip leaves

Today I found the first of the tulips breaking through the soil around the tree in the front yard. The Daffodils I planted this November have been showing up here and there for a couple weeks. We've had some weird weather lately with temperatures in the upper 60s and a lot of rain. Tonight the forecast calls for mid-20s and windy. The high today was 55 degrees. Sunny and breezy.

I need to remind myself that there are lots of daffodils in the woods out back. I should probably make a note somewhere to dig them up after they've bloomed. I want to create a naturalized look in the perennial bed. In my head, I see thousands upon thousands of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths each spring. In reality, there are 20 daffodil bulbs, no tulips, and a handful of hyacinths and crocuses in the ground.

Give me time, it's a work in progress.