Times of the signs
Winter is losing its grip.
I have noticed already that the days are getting longer. Or maybe the nights are getting shorter? Iâm not sure which and I hope the distinction isnât important.
The day to day change isnât noticeable. Itâs a bit like that spot of rust on the car â it never seems to change until one day you realise that the door has fallen off. The changing time is a bit like that. You donât suddenly wake up to full sunlight where the previous day it was dark. Oh no. Itâs too sneaky for that. Itâs only when you realise that you are switching the lights on at five instead of half four that you realise that things are changing.
There are a few little milestones that we havenât reached just yet. The snowdrops are up but arenât exactly a solid bed of little white flowers yet. The frogs wonât have their massive orgy in the pond for another four weeks or so, but we are getting there. Slowly but surely winter has had its day.
Of course winter can be fucking sneaky, and it wouldnât surprise me if we didnât have another significant fall of Global Warming in the next few weeks, but it will be a last gasp attempt by winter to deny the inevitable.
The birds have changed their tune too. For the last couple of months there hasnât been much in the way of birdsong, but that has changed. Quite a few of them are getting randy already and are shouting their heads off from the treetops. It will soon be time to comb Sandy and wodge the combings into the bushes for the nest-builders to fight over.
I think Iâll leave the sunbeds in the shed for another few weeks though.
Nice one old chap. Cheered me up no end on this bleak, Monday morning. Snow still everywhere. Too cold to melt. I was at that hotel in Estes last year where they filmed The Shining. Looks like that outside right now. Ah well,better do some work. As you say roll on spring. Should be here in a couple of weeks.
Thank god we have global warming!
Mind the Russians don’t seem bothered by the seasonal ice as they have now freed all of the trapped ships.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2011/01/icebreaker-dance.html
Took them 18 days but they have done it. Had they been British… well someone somwhere would still be waiting for a permit to act called ‘The Health & Safety Risk Assessment!’
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Nice for you guys over there Grandad. We’re not so lucky. We had a fall of Global Warming overnight and the temps are forecast in the single digits for the next couple of days. Brrr. On the up side, you’re right about the days are getting longer. And I watched a show at the weekend that explained that based on how the earth circles the sun winter is the shortest of the four seasons. (89 days winter compared to summer as the longest season with 94 days). That cheered me up no end!
That’ll be 42 euros for Spring Anticipation Tax please Mr Grandad.
TT – Anything to cheer you up, Old Fruit. 😉
Bill – Did I read that right? They are countering the record low temperatures by saying that it would have been even colder without global warming??? Do these fuckers ever give up?
Denise – I suppose it all depends on how you define summer or winter. I have a simple definition. Winter = jumper. Summer = t-shirt. I need my jumper today!!
Con – For fuck’s sake! Don’t be giving them ideas…..
Spring is such a great time – nature’s puberty. Full of newness and reproducing and hope for the future.
65%(F) here today in New Mexico.  The kids are out of school today (MLK) and are down at the park, playing kissy face.  Can Spring be far away? Â
Holemaster – Shit! If this is nature’s puberty, does that mean it’s going to go all hormonal on us?
Willie – Playing kissy face? The mind boggles!! That sounds like it might be a sin…
It’s cold. Below 0F. The earth is dead. Spring is months and months away, if it ever gets here. The worst of winter is still in the future. We can expect global warming storms until mid-april. Snow and ice are the forecasts of our lives for the foreseeable future.
I hate winter!
Spring in 4 weeks? I do wish you’d stop reminding me of that. You’ll be enjoying the beginning of Spring in February? Do I have that right? While I sit over here not looking forward to that type of thing until the middle of April or so. Still, I wouldn’t move away from our little valley for love nor money. I’ll put in central heating instead.
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Denise – Despite what they might say, Winter in Vermont is still a 5 month ordeal and them that says it’s only 89 days are free to come camp out in my backyard anytime from November to April. We’ll see what they say then. 😉
Kirk ~ I do wish Grandad would stop reminding us too. I’d forgotten that “over there” they get a better deal than us when it comes to winter.
No need to depress me anymore than I am though. Let me bask in in the 89 days – Even if I know it’s only an illusion… (And today I really need the illusion, it’s a rough one!)