Summer's Almost Here! Yep, it's official!

Can I come over to play??? What I wouldn't give to be at the beach right now! I saw a robin last month which really confused me because robins are an indication that Spring has arrived, yet the poor thing was looking just as confused as I was, sitting on a tree branch, braving the snow that was coming down. It sounds like you're having an early Spring. I doubt we'll see that here, although the record snow we had this season is melting. There are still piles of snow beside roads that are nearly four feet high but they're slowly melting. I expect it will be time to plant the garden here sometime around June instead of the typical April/May.

The weather has been strange here this year. Cold, wet and rainy one day and in the 70's with sunshine the next. I don't think that nature knows what to do. Some of our bulbs are already sprouting and I shouldn't see that until April either. Can't complain about the rain though. It's been so dry here for so long that we're on water rationing. We're only allowed to water our lawns on Monday and Thursday and it is mandatory that our usage be cut 15%. I love the beach and to me the best thing about living in southern California is that you can go to the beach year round. You are always welcome to join me. Hop over and we'll take a trip to my favorite, Laguna Beach!

Hi Leenie. I hope you're moved by now and that it went smoothly. At least as smoothly as possible for a move. Please let me know how you're doing when you're settled in because you'll be on my mind until then. MUCH LUCK!!!

Wow! Where do you live? I'm in northern Virginia. We had a total of just under eight feet of snow for the season when we normally get less than a foot. I didn't think I'd ever see the ground again and am worried about the same as you, that the ground won't dry enough to plant the early crops. I have trees sitting just inside the door of our unheated garage and hope they survive long enough to get planted. Normally, by this time, I'd be outside already beginning preparations for my garden but, here I am, stuck inside wondering if I should put off starting my seedlings for a few more weeks because I know the ground is as saturated as it can possibly get. Let's just hope this stuff melts for everyone and we have a month or so without any rain so the ground has a chance to dry out some! Good luck!

it rained for a minute, about two days ago. but that never even get the ground wet. we need some more rains as most of the waters in dams that hydro electric power plants need it, water levels continue to go down.

Hi Neil. I hope the temperatures cool down for you some soon! I know what high temps can do. I've lost entire gardens before in years when it was exceptionally hot. It's finally warming up here, little by little. Today should get up to the mid-40's (maybe) and into the 50's by next week. It is still dipping down below freezing at night, though. Normally, by this time, some of our flowers should be poking up out of the ground but, so far, nothing. At least we can see some of the ground now!

Hi Paula. Sometimes, my poor old brain doesn't want to think that you guys have the opposite weather from us. When we have Winter, you have Summer. I've forgotten what hot is like! What I would LOVE to do is to ship you a bunch of our snow when you're so hot down there. Maybe attach some of our cold temperatures, too. This year has proved to be exceptionally bad with much colder temps and about 10 times the snow we normally get. I can see a lot of our grass now, although it's still dormant, waiting for warmer weather to start growing. Hopefully, the weather people are correct and we'll see temps in the 50's by next week. Hopefully, also, this snow may just be all melted by then. I'm so very sick of snow!!! I could go the rest of my life without seeing any more.

Yep, mud is what we have, too. A car got stuck at the beginning of our driveway after one of the biggest snowstorms. They were trying to visit neighbors of ours but missed their turn and tried turning around in our driveway. Once the snow melted from the driveway, we saw the damage their car made. We have a HUGE divot in the mud (we have a gravel driveway) at least four feet long where their tire was spinning and a huge pile of mud next to it. We're going to have to smooth out the driveway once all this stuff dries out a bit and have new gravel put down. Our private road is also total mud with no gravel from all the shoveling. Luckily, our house sits at the top of our property, which slopes down to the lake, so there is no sitting water anywhere but it's still awfully muddy. I'm an avid gardener but it looks like I'll have to postpone my gardening this year for at least a few weeks to give this stuff time to dry out some, if it ever does! We're supposed to have temps up into the 50's later this week and I'm sooooooooo excited about that! I'll tell you one thing, if I never see snow again for the rest of my life, I WON'T be complaining!

I'm with you on the no snow, but then I would have to rethink that around christmas time...Don't know how I would do with no snow for christmas, it just wouldn't feel like it. It could snow the day before and be gone the day after!

I hope that's true, Jen! I can't stand the bugs, at least not the pesky ones. I am rather fond of the ladybugs and praying mantis' since they eat the bad bugs. But, I can do without the ticks (we get lots of deer ticks around here for obvious reasons) and mosquitos. Mosquitos aren't a huge problem here, even though we live on a lake. There is an incredible amount of frogs around and I'm sure they help to keep the population down. I'm glad you caught the funny I was trying to make. Not many did! LOL But, seeing the deers heads above the snow is quite encouraging. LOL There was a time this winter when we wouldn't have seen them if they were out there because the snow was so deep. We just had more snow yesterday. Just an inch or so and it melted the same day but, still, I don't want to see any more snow for the next ten years!

message, it was just not the right time. We had snow that would have been over these deer's heads at one point. Seeing their heads above the snow says it's melting. What isn't real is the timing. When I posted this, we could actually see about half of our ground and maybe 4 or 6 inches remained on the other half.

OK I'm a little slow what was the funny? The picture wasn't real?

Deer aren't the sign for summer. It was being able to see their heads above all the snow that says summer is coming. We got about eight feet of snow this winter, in total, MUCH more than normal. I feel like we're living in the North Pole instead of Virginia, USA. I've often thought about living in a tropical place because gardening is my passion. Our winters normally get too cold for tropical fruits and they are my favorite fruits. So, I have to buy them at the grocery store where they're pretty expensive. But, I don't know if I could handle worrying about hurricanes or typhoons. I've been through a few in my life and know they can be pretty nasty. Spring is actually right around the corner here. March 20th is when Spring officially gets here. Summer is in June. So, the picture with the deer is a bit of a joke, since we've had so very much snow this year.

I just saw your comment about robins--they've been here in Southwestern Ohio all winter!! Everything is confused this year.

Hey, there! Long time no see! I'm glad to hear that you've had a mild winter. I guess we got your weather and you got ours because, normally, we don't get nearly this much snow. Less than a foot. We've had no rain at all except for about a week ago. But, we just got more snow yesterday! Looks like I may have to move to Canada to get away from all this snow.