Here comes a February thaw. Will it stay?

 On top of the piano is a vase full of forsythia stems all in bloom, complements of the Better Half. It’s a nice reminder that spring is on its way no matter how cold it is outside right now. Downstairs, the bulb garden has added yellow daffodil blooms to the ones with white petals and an orange edged center and the orange tulips and white hyacinths(?), again complements of the Better Half. I need to keep reminding myself that we also have new plants to look forward to when spring actually arrives because I spent a little time helping to plant bushes and bulbs last autumn.

I’m gong to be watching with a great deal of curiosity, and some trepidation, how the thaw-melt cycle shapes up over the next week or ten days or more(?). Will the roof actually drain or will it develop ice dams? Will the  rain-snow mix in the forecast bring more rain than snow and how will that affect the snow on the roof? Lurking in the back of my mind is the old saying my mother taught me “Be careful what you wish  for, you may  get it.” 

open water, Sunrise River: February 21, 2017

Photo by J. Harrington

As we all know, once the snow melts it either seeps into the ground, difficult when the ground is frozen, or runs off to the nearest water body, around here that’s creeks that feed the Sunrise river, currently covered by ice and snow. As you can see above, some years we’ve had an early enough melt that there’s been open water for returning waterfowl during [late] February. Personally, I think an early spring thaw would be a great Valentine from Mother Nature. Can you tell I’m getting excited about impending spring’s arrival? I better go do some work on the taxes to help calm down.

Thaw

Edward Thomas - 1878-1917

Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flowers of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.

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