The Changing Seasons: April 2018
Speaking of changing, what a month! For that matter, what a couple of months this has been. Crazy weather.
The Nice Weather Gallery
Not that crazy isn’t an inherent part of our New England weather. The northeastern piece of this continent has weather that is utterly unpredictable, especially as winter tries to turn into spring and generally fails.
Good morning little red finch!
Typically, we get winter. Then we get the end of winter which is like winter with occasional warmer days sandwiched between cold ones.
The Not Nice Weather Gallery
I suppose what has made this “spring” particularly difficult has been the cold. By this time of year, I’m usually turning down the heat, opening the windows. Cleaning out the garden. Getting excited about daffodils and glorying in the yellowness of forsythia.
As of right now, we have no flowers. We have had crocuses and they were lovely and we have a lot of growth — the beginning of what I fondly believe will be flowers in a couple of weeks. Maybe even less. But as of right now? It’s the end of the winter. Freezing temperatures at night, warming into the high forties or low fifties in the middle of the day.
Snow along the road
And then there were the super storms. We are not on the seashore, so we didn’t get the kind of battering people living closer to the ocean have gotten. During the past ten years, we’ve gotten giant storms, often stretching from coast-to-coast or taking up most of the Atlantic Ocean.
The scientists dealing with climate change believe these super storms are prime indicators of climate change. It’s not that we don’t get strange weather in New England, but rarely do we get three super storms with hurricane-level winds in less than two weeks. With snow and rain and sleet and flooding.
Almost daffodils
It’s sort of like the weather we have always gotten multiplied by a factor of five. Very intense weather packed tightly together.
We will have spring and in many places, today was the day it seemed to show up. It was love here today. Blue skies, moderate weather and the song of the Carolina wren can be heard all around the property.
Christmas cactus ready to bloom again
Tomorrow, there will be rain and wind — but after that, I think we will have a few days of spring and then it will be summer. I’m hoping I can get down to clean up the garden before the flowers open. It’s really hard to rake when the day lilies are blooming and the roses are rampant in the garden.
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Categories: #Photography, New England, Sunset, Weather
DARKNESS AND LIGHT – BLACK & WHITE SUNDAY 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I am amazed to see your beautiful snowy photos still! Spring really is taking its time!
Love your photo of the red finch!
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It’s still snowing a bit north of here. It’s not sticking, but it is falling. Some spring!
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Unbelievable! But you know, for someone who lives in the tropics, I have to admit that the thought of snow at this time of the year is quite thrilling! (I’m sure you don’t feel the same!!!!)
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There was a time when it seemed exciting. I lived in Israel for almost a decade and snow was pretty exotic. Times have definitely changed I still appreciate its beauty, but it does make winter a bit difficult!
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… I’m practically purring. These skies aren’t local, so I’m in out of office blogging mode til I get home next week.
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No problem. Today, it’s raining. Of course it’s raining. We had a nice day. That should be enough, right?
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I do feel very fortunate that my world is relatively free of these weather extremities (so far). We’re had (mildly) unseasonably crappy weather, but as i’ve Just spent the day in sunshine under the most enormous blue skies;
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Maybe the southern hemisphere will be spared the giant storms of the north. You might get lucky.
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The strong contrast between “nice” and “not so nice” is what makes New England so unique and gorgeous.
Easy to say from a place with less contrasts, I agree. But there is something to say about strong distinct seasons.
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I love the seasons. I hate the seasons. Mainly, I want a much longer autumn, a real spring that lasts more than half a day, and a summer without so many BUGS. And less snow and ice in winter, please.
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This place, as you know, Marilyn, doesn’t exist 🙂
If it did it would be heavily populated.
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I think it used to be St. Thomas or maybe Ste. Martine. I’m not sure if that’s true anymore. San Diego used to have nearly perfect weather, too. But the world is changing.
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Marilyn, it will come to no good to tell you about ‘how lucky in general’ we are with the weather, here being some 30km sw of Paris. But we too had the ghastliest weather this winter/spring. Only a few days ago I said to HH that we didn’t really have a spring as we went without pause from heating to 30°C+ in one day…. This IS NOT normal – and then we had – again – a ton of rain, beastly winds, cold – and now it’s high summer once more. But then, how can the climate everywhere be ‘normal’ when NOTHING is any more?
On the plus side: All your photos are magnificent, I especially treasure the bird on a cable (?) and your many trees’ pics – they are a balm to the sore eye and tired soul.
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We are having a lovely day today. There are fat buds on the trees and the flowers — if they had a few more nice days — would surely burst open. But it has been not normal, though around here “normal” is a bit of a moot point. I think the difference is the extremity of the differences. VERY cold, warm, VERY windy, bitterly cold and snow, rain, warm and all of them back again. Change is normal, but such violent change is not “normal”, not even here in the crazy northeast of the U.S. I have a garden to clean and I hope to get it done this week. I’m not a passionate gardener, but I usually at least get tings more or less cleaned up in the beginning of the season so it can crumble and become a mess by the end!
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Much prefer the nice weather photos, Marilyn.
Leslie
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I much prefer the nice weather to go with it. We’ve got a big storm coming in tomorrow, so nice is going away for another few (?) days. After which … maybe ??
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I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.
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It;s a roller coaster ride for sure
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I think we are gradually fading into summer now. Slowly. VERY slowly. I’m hoping I have a few days to at least make an effort to get the garden cleared out before the lilies bloom!
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When I see your roller coaster of ‘spring’ weather, I can see I should not complain. BUT…
We’ve just had four days of warmth and now it’s back to grey and cold, and for the next week or so it seems there won’t be much change. Wishing you more hopeful spring vistas.
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The violent swings of weather are not normal, even in places where weather is unpredictable. It’s not that it changes — we always have a lot of change this time of year. It’s the extremity of the changes, the intensity of the weather patterns. It’s weather on steroids!
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