While not officially in a "drought," our entire county is abnormally dry. So is the rest of Minnesota, except for those areas under moderate drought. Since the ground is still frozen, the snow melt tends to run off rather than percolate down. All of which provides contradictory explanations of why we do (or do not) have water ponding in the "wet spot" behind the house. We'll keep an eye on it this week and see what happens.
 |
| the "wet spot" -- mid-March 2016
Photo by J. Harrington
|
The snow cover is retreating rapidly downhill on the South-facing slopes in the "back yard." As more and more ground appears, the sun has more and more area that can absorb, rather than reflect, its warmth. It appears as though we may soon reach a tipping point needed to defrost the ground as well as melt the snow, but we're not there yet. In fact, we've barely begun to accumulate growing degree days. That probably means we've time to finish organizing the taxes before we need to plan this year's planting.
Neither of those activities will interfere with our watching for bud burst on the maple trees in front of the house. We'd best be careful, we're starting to get excited about Spring's arrival. In the North Country, that often precedes a Spring blizzard. Meanwhile, a March "breeze" is rattling the treetops and hustling the moisture from the snowmelt to somewhere else.
Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.
********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
No comments:
Post a Comment