Blooms and Suits

"March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice."
-  Hal Borland

                                 
                              What is it with Burpee and Lands End flooding my mailbox!


 Flowers, vegies and Swimsuits.  Aaaccck. They are trying to drive a person who already has Spring Fever insane!  We had a snowstorm this weekend and it's still 10 weeks till our last frost date!

I always tend to push that though, especially when we get a few teasing 50 degrees during the day and the sun is warm enough to heat up my bluejeans -- when it's out that is. There are a few hardy plants, like pansies and a few herbs that will laugh at the frost and let me play in the dirt.

Kids are never cold!

One of the pit falls of living so close to the lake, a mile and a  half as the crow flies inland from the shore, is the breeze coming off the cold water. It gives us clouds and a darn chilly wind in the Spring.  You can go 7 miles inland and the sun is shining brightly and it's 10 degrees warmer!  It's also a plus in the Summer though. When I drive towards the lake, down the hill the last mile towards home, I can sometimes watch the temperature outside my car drop by 10 degrees.  The lake breeze is cooling everything off.  We get the same with snow in the winter: go inland and the sun is shining, while back at the house it's a blizzard.

  I try to explain Lake Effect to Doug, who's from the east side of Michigan and has a different kind of lake related weather, to no avail.  He did get to experience one majorly awesome thunderstorm that rolled through a few years ago, though, even I hadn't experienced one as bad as this one was.

 We were out in the garage watching the heavy black purplish clouds roll in from the lake, that odd yellow green tint below them, and listening to the thunder out over the lake.  This storm came in so fast we didn't have time to get back to the house, nor would it have been wise to attempt to.  Sixty MPH winds with gusts to ninety, and we were surrounded by huge old maple trees.  Lightening and thunder was so loud it was both deafening and blinding.

The rain came in sideways sheets, all 9 inches of it in just under two hours.  It was fun -- until the electric went out -- which is cool except the sump pumps don't work.  Flooded inside and out!  The pool even overflowed.  I think we spent 2 days pumping out the basement.  You've got to love Michigan basements in the country -- keep nothing on the floor!

yes that's a frog on his shoulder

My daughter and her hubby and the G'kids were all over that evening and no one was going anywhere. Trees were down all the way to town and everywhere in town.  For the first time I can remember, the town was shut down, flooded and with no power for 2 days.  It took quite a bit longer than 2 days for the yard to dry up.  The Grandkids enjoyed the extra pond where there shouldn't have been one! Frogs even moved in.


Did I mention I love Mother Nature?  I do really.  Such awesome power. 

I have to add here that the reason he doubts my weather forecasting is because in the 2 years since he moved totally to this side of the state, neither winter or summer has been normal.  Nothing like I explained, anyway. Winters have been mild and hardly any snow and summers hot!

 When the calendar flips over to March, even though it's cloudy and chilly most days, there is always a day here and there to tease of what's to come.  That's what really kicks in the old Spring Fever and I long for bright blue skies and warm sunshine.

I'm happiest when I can go out the door early in the morning barefoot in cutoffs and a tank top.  I know that type of dress will be more than that 11 weeks away. I tell myself one more month and it will really be Spring.  I can start to plant the real garden and when that time comes the beach time isn't far away.

So the dratted catalog people are helping to help push a cabin fever afflicted soul a bit farther over the edge. We have all these big wall windows here in the condo, maybe I can turn them into a greenhouse. That  might work and I can often find a corner out of the wind in the sun and pretend it's not 40 degrees.  That works, too.  For another month or so, it will have to work!

Seems to me March would be the perfect time to head south, way far south, or maybe just anywhere where I'm not tempted to start ordering everything that looks like I'm going to need (want).  

I think the MAN heard me sigh way up in the loft.