Monday, February 26, 2007

Piled On

Well, the icy snow banks were still around, when we got another three inches of snow. This time it was a wet packing snow. There are a couple of snow men in the neighborhood now, although, I don't know how well they survived the change over to rain last night. Roads are clear, so that's good. But I'm left wondering when the snow cover will finally go away. My poor daffodils.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Mid-Season Catch Up

Well, a few things aside from the weather... The red hibiscus is severely suffering from scale, I need to treat it again this weekend. The orange one is going strong.

My flowering maple is finally reflowering. I keep forgetting to take a picture of it. I bought it about three years ago at the grocery store, and this is its first rebloom. It is a high light requirement plant and is very leggy. I nearly missed the flowers, since the "top" portion of the plant hangs over the table. Mine has orange flowers. I must try to get a good picture of it. But lighting is hard this time of year.

Also, I went to buy another bag of birdseed and got stuck with the high sunflower mix. Usually I go for more of the little seeds for the sparrows. Neighbor puts out more than enough sunflower seeds and cracked corn. Still, there are at least two dozen cardinals in the flock behind my house, so it is good they have something to eat.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Rosebud

Well, it has been an interesting winter. One kids will be lusting after for years to come. Snow was on the ground for nearly a week. Meaningful snow. Great sledding snow. A firmly packed base, with a hard crust that is really fast. Good for getting out the sled and waxing up the runners. Oh, wait, the kids around here are used to catch as you can snow that disappears within a day or two, so they only have plastic saucers. Not good sleds with runners. But really, this is the kind of snow I remember from winters further north where my dad would get on the sled with us kids and stear down hill. And we'd put the straps on the dog so he could play sled dog and pull it back up the hill for us. Good times.

Of course, with all the ice up top, it has been trecherous to walk on and a huge pain to shovel. First you have to break the ice, then move it. Grr. And to add insult to injury, we got a dusting on Sunday which looks prettier, but just hides the ice.

But fortunately, this morning, it is warmer than it was all last week. The melting/flooding is here! 40 degrees this morning going up to 50! Whee! Even if that means having to shovel slush.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

At What Point

So, I'm sitting at home, burning my vacation leave, because despite heavy icing and uncleared roads other than the interstates, the federal government continued its masichistic policy of not telling people to stay home and stay safe. I realize that the DC metro region is huge and generally weather is different at one end than the other. But given that a lot of feds come down out of West Virginia, you'd think they were a little more cautious. I'm not a fed, but our boss doesn't close the office and give us paid time off, unless the feds call it.

Anyway, on to the storm report. What was supposed to be a big snow event fizzled, since the temperatures aloft were too warm. So, we got about an inch of snow here, then some freezing drizzle with the first storm through the area. The second storm arrived with ice pellets pinging off my screens over night. I'd say about on inch of ice pellets out there. Still, that's not as bad as the sleet, so I'll take my blessings. Even if I do have to go out and shovel.

A snow plow with a landscape contractor just went past, the first snow plow through the development. Not that it helps people who went out yesterday and are now parked on ice. Neighbor with one of those big fancy trucks is out there spinning his tires right now. At least, I can push my little car past those spots if I had to. I can drive in snow. I even trust the idiots around here to manage well enough in snow. But ice is a time to stay in.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Cold and Powdery

Well, yesterday we got our inch of powder. And by the afternoon, it had evaporated in the sun because it is just that dry here. It certainly wasn't because 29 degrees is warm. Driving conditions yesterday were hazardous, not because of the snow, but because of the unusually cold temperatures froze a lot of people's windshield wiper fluid and they couldn't clean the salt spray off of their windows. (I'm still trying to figure out why the dealer or the person before me followed directions on the bottle and did this, because I didn't use enough to replace any.)

Still way below average temperatures. I guess Mother Nature is trying to prove that DC is not going to be zone 8 any time soon.

On the other hand, my orange hibiscus is thanking me for the repotting by putting out at least 5 buds. One bloomed on Sunday.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Fizzles

Late last week, we were supposed to get a ice and snow storm. It stayed south, so there wasn't any problems associated with it. Except, that it was supposed to block a cold front that was coming from the midwest. That dumped about an half an inch of sloppy precip during rush hour. Didn't stick to the pavement, and didn't really lay on the grass, but big flakes in rush hour is bad news.

Then the temperature dropped. The dusting of flakes that stuck around, really stuck around. Windchill advisories on top of temperatures that never did hit 30 aided that. Last night/this morning, lows in the teens, with windchills hovering around zero until around lunch. Only going to get up to the 20s. Tonight/tomorrow morning, they are talking single digits with windchills way below zero. And highs scraping into the 20s. And the talk is that the warmest day this week is going to hit 37.

There are just some weeks when you wish Global Climate Change really meant warming. Especially since 8 degrees is the coldest day since 2004.