April 1, 2011

This Is No Joke

Today is April Fools' Day, but this is no joke. We still have ALL this snow in our yard. No, that's not a movie star in the photo. It's me standing out there wondering what happened to spring. Covered with snow and waiting to make an appearance are daffodils, muscari armeniacums, hyacinths, glory of the snow, anemones, allium, camassia quamash and crocus.

This picture of my mother was taken on March 17. It was a mild day with a light rain that was washing away the last of the snow. We were leaving the nursing home after visiting my dad when she spotted this plastic Frosty buried in a dirty snowbank. She's had a rough nine months, but still manages to smile. One week after this photo was taken, we had another 17.8 inches of snow.

Let the mating season begin! For wild turkeys, that is. I found this male courting a hen. The males are polygamous and will form a territory with as many as five hens. The eggs are incubated for about 28 days and hopefully for the little poults the snow will be gone by then. 

Lots of leaves.
No flower stalks.
Poor me.
What did I do wrong?

23 comments:

  1. Hello dear Donna...oh, I send my condolences to you about all that darn S...(well, you know. I just can't bring myself to say that 'S' word right now!). It does seem that you have had MORE than your share! Here I am in VA with cold-ish (30's this morning) weather but really cannot complain because we have none of that 'S'-word stuff! It has been rainy & chilly for the last 2 wks though which has been disappointing after a period of high 70's and sunny spring weather! Mother Nature has gone back to sleep. But the good news is it IS April afterall, and that means that soon, yes--very soon--spring will really start showing herself and you can get rid of that 'S'-stuff;)
    Great shot of the turkeys courting! I hope there will be cute little chicks you can photograph later.
    And, regarding your Amaryllis, mine did EXACTLY the same thing this year...not a single bloom was to be had. I think you need to go out and buy yourself some pretty indoor African Violets or something even showier;-)
    Lastly, you sure do look like a movie-star to me!
    PS Please come visit my sustainable living giveaway Donna! You do NOT need to write a blog post for it...NO, not at all! Just leave a comment on the post. There are 21 cool garden gifts to give away...books and tools and snowdrops to plant in your garden and other cool things so get on over and leave me a comment!! And please tell your friends 'cause I want everyone to see what could be theirs just for leaving a comment! Thanks;-)

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  2. Donna-
    Looks the same here. Lots of SNOW. I really don't like that 4 letter word anymore. Yesterday we had some more snow followed by rain. Lots of rain. That will help the snow to go. Hope it will not be long for us to play in the soil!

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  3. Hi beautiful gorgeous lady..gosh you do look like a moviestar. But all that SNOW....awful...we will have great weather comming up tomorrow I'll blow some over your way.
    Hang in her girl, you'll be on your knees putting new plants in the soil before you know it.
    I'll cross my fingers for you it will stop snowing from this day on...spring arrived.
    Hugs D. to keep you warm.

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  4. Oh no, won't that snow ever go away! We're having snow this morning but with temps in the high 30's, it's not amounting to much.

    Some years my amaryllis does the same thing. I have never been able to figure out the reason. Better luck next year.

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  5. Cute picture of you in the snow, though I'm sure you wish it was a sea of tulips behind you rather than snow. Here we just keep getting rain.
    I didn't realize turkeys had sister wives :) Maybe a new reality show in the making?
    Hope that snow is gone soon!

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  6. Sorry about the snow (although you do look happy in the picture) and that your family is going through difficult times.

    Great turkey pictures!! Those birds have some long legs.

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  7. YUCK! I am so sorry your spring is so late! I hate the snow so badly! We have one small strip of it, what's left of what used to be an 18' snow bank. YUCK!

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  8. Bless you! All is still waiting to surpirse you. Happy April :)

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  10. Oh my. I can't even imagine. We had a little s*** on Saturday and I had a PTSD attack. I mean, we had had the air conditioning on one day that week!
    Sweet picture of your mom, and those turkeys look a little fiesty! And you do look as pretty as a movie star!

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  11. Hi Donna,

    I'm so sorry you still have all that snow. We still have a few pockets and heaps, but it is trying to disappear.

    You look lovely and so does your mama.

    Hope the sun comes out and gets the melt started.

    Happy April...no fooling.

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  12. Oh Donna, I'm sorry to hear about all that snow still hanging around. Ours is long gone, thank goodness. But I'm still waiting for the big warm up, have you seen it? I had four amaryllis do the same thing this year, all foliage, no flowers. Darn!

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  13. Oh, I'm so sorry, Donna--no wonder s*@# has become a four-letter word for you! There have been some light dustings around us in the past two weeks, but 17 inches is hardly light! Even the piles from the snowplows that seemed to remain in the parking lots forever have finally melted. I love your mother's find in the snow--Frosty must have helped to put a smile on her face. I wish her and you many more smiles, Donna.

    As for your amaryllis, that is exactly what mine did the first year. Don't give up, though--the second year the same plant put out some gorgeous blooms. This year mine did the opposite--it bloomed and then all the leaves died immediately; somehow I don't think that's a good sign. And my indoor hyacinth bulbs never did bloom:)

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  14. While I understand your plight, I am somewhat jealous. Yes, you read right. We have had hardly any snow and it seems you have stolen it all.
    So here we are hoping Colorado doesn't burn down. :)
    Hang in there, beautiful. Spring will come!

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  15. Thanks for the giant catch up on my blog this evening. So nice to hear from you.

    Did Elizabeth post about the Grilled Romaine on FB. Did they like it? I guess they must have if she FB'd about it.

    You needed to go back one more post, to see the one with your name in it. It was called "Yes Donna, I went and saw James again". That Donna, was you.

    I can't believe it's been two years since we met either. Sometimes it seems like we've known each other for so long.

    Thank you my dear friend.

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  16. Great photo of you pretty girl! Man oh man Donna 17.5 more inches!? That is crazy. I am so sorry and hope that it melts soon so you can see some color. And I hope all is doing better with your Mom.

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  17. This winter has been rough on us :P I think it is finally over in New York, but you never know...

    http://ladyonaroof.blogspot.com/

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  18. My goodness, Donna. What is it looking like now? Do give us an update.

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  19. Oh Donna! I'm very late coming to this post and I hope some of that has melted by now. Yikes. Can't wait to see your posts when those daffodills etc. bloom. ..I miss spring flowers. (No winter, no spring flowers.) I don't miss rain and cold (and if I had ever lived in snow like you do I wouldn't miss that either) but I sure do miss the daffodills and tulips.

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  20. Hi Donna,
    I'm sorry your winter is hanging on so long. I enjoyed seeing the photos of you and your mom. I don't know why you don't have blooms on your indoor bulb plant. I haven't grown those before. I always have so many plants overwintering, that I don't seem to have room for bulbs.

    We area supposed to get into the 80s this weekend. Hopefully, warmer temps are headed your way.

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  21. I missed this one ... that's the way March looked here.

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  22. Oh, my.. I can't believe you have still snow there at this time of the year. I just wish that warm days are not very far.We have a wet weekend this time. It has been raining since last night. Tomorrow we are going to visit the city but with this wet weather we are having now, I think that can wait the next weekend.

    Beautiful photos.You and your mum both look great. Love all your photos

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