March So Fickle, Part II

When I woke up Friday morning and looked out the window, it was raining snowballs! The radio came on and told of traffic tieups everywhere, although it was warm enough most of the streets were merely wet. I hurried downstairs before breakfast to try to get some pictures of this wet snow before it turned to rain and disappeared.
The front yard redbud wore a frosting of snow on the emerging flowers. They should be OK if it doesn't get any colder than 28 tomorrow night.

As for yesterday's daffodils nodding in the sun by the driveway-- here they are, struggling to hold up their heads as the wet stuff fell on them. The bushes wore some frosting too, for a couple of hours.

Zooming all the way to the back of the yard, I could see that the daffodils that came from my parents' house were trying to be small rays of sunshine in the bloom. At left, the yellow rose, which is all leaved out, was decorated as well. At least there are no rosebuds yet. Norm was planning to trim it back, but now he will have to wait for drier weather to tromp around in that bed.

This was the view from the back porch about 10 a.m. The total snowfall was less than an inch. Then it started to rain, which lasted until mid afternoon. After it stopped, Norm went out and broadcast grass seed in all of the thin and shaded areas, something we do several times a year, starting when the days get warm. He figured that the snow cover would provide some moisture for the seed, and also some cover to keep marauding blackbirds from eating it all before it can sprout. Then he went to Branneky Hardware and brought home a bale of straw to spread over the seed, for good measure.

This feeder is supposed to have a weighted perch that discourages larger birds from being able to get anything to eat. The grackles seem to have foiled that, as have a couple of squirrels. But in a rare moment a cardinal was able to get some lunch while the bigger birds were somewhere else.




I could hear a lot of blackbirds squawking in the trees next door so I aimed the camera up and took this picture of Jacinta's elm tree, or what is left of it after several storms. I expected to see grackles but these look more like robins, which have a very distinctive silhouette.

I guess the blackbirds were in Barb's evergreens. I never did get a good look at them but their racket overhead was pretty loud. By this afternoon, all of this finery had melted off the trees in the light rain that followed. We will have a quiet night, but the weather service on Friday afternoon issued a Winter Storm Warning for our area for today. They say we could get 2 -5 inches. I am hoping it won't disrupt our scrap quilt club meeting, or keep us from getting to church on Sunday. The ground is warm enough that the roads should be OK. But some of those delicate flower petals may find it too much to bear. It is still March, after all, and anything goes. Maybe we shouldn't have put away the heated birdbath last weekend when it was 82 degrees. Go figure.