OT: spring springing

In article <[email protected]>, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I know the calendar says it's January, but the forest says it's officially
> spring!

You suck.

Here it's currently -29C (-21F for the Murricans) with a windchill
warning (with windchill it's -42C (-46F for the Murricans)).

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

In article <[email protected]>, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Saskatoon?

Ayup.

> It's hard to keep all you Canukistanis straight.

If the gummint follows through on the pot decrim bill, that'll be true
up here too!

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

In article <[email protected]>, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Just don't ask me to tell you where Saskatoon is on a map. ;)

52 degrees 10 minutes north, 106 degrees 43 minutes west, of course.

Or, straight north of Montana about 3.5 hours.

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

In article <[email protected]>, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Out yonder somewhere, and up a bit.

You got it!

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

In article <[email protected]>, Larry Jaques
<novalidaddress@di\/ersify.com> wrote:

> (The inhabitants, not the weather, sir.)

This time of year I can but agree...

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

Silvan writes:

> know the calendar says it's January, but the forest says it's officially
>spring!
>
>I rooted around in the leaf litter today, and lo, I found a solitary
>hepatica in *bloom*. I never did find another one that was even thinking
>about sending up a flower stalk, but it won't be long.
>
>First the hepatica, then the bloodroot, then myriad things will hit at once
>in a mad race to bloom and copulate before the canopy overhead blocks out
>the light. Then the leaves will unfurl, the trees will bloom, and the
>world will be *green* again.

You wish. It has been warm here, too, in the high 60s yesterday, low 60s
supposedly due today. Damned new grass (patch that was re-seeded after all the
fire debris was hauled out of the house and dumped before removal) has grown
almost 2" since last cutting in early November. Weird. But reports for later in
the week are calling for 30 degree highs, or lower.

Best get my time in my (unheated) garage shop today!

Charlie Self
"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house." Zsa
Zsa Gabor

http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/myhomepage/business.html

Andy Dingley wrote:

> What's a hepatica ? The only hepatica I know is the beefsteak fungus,
> the bracket fungus that gives us brown oak.

It's an ephemeral wildflower native to many parts. Actually, several
closely-related species, and it seems after a cursory search that they're
all native to North America east of the Mississippi.

The flower actually blooming was one of this flavor here:

http://tinyurl.com/3xrb7

We also have these:

http://tinyurl.com/2a4xx

and these

http://tinyurl.com/yw5uc

growing in abundance. The irridescent pastel bluish/purplish ones are the
first to bloom. They're also the most difficult to photograph. They're
something you need to see first-hand to appreciate. Some site I just
stumbled over (but did not bookmark) explains how these flowers reflect so
much UV and IR with different parts of their structure that they're
virtually impossible to capture on film. That explains why all my attempts
to photograph these have met with poor results.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Andy Dingley said:

>On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:55:03 -0500, Silvan
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I rooted around in the leaf litter today, and lo, I found a solitary
>>hepatica in *bloom*.
>
>What's a hepatica ? The only hepatica I know is the beefsteak fungus,
>the bracket fungus that gives us brown oak.

A native wildflower, in the family of Buttercups (Ranunculaceae).
Often one of the first flowers of spring - the leaves usually stay
green all winter - storing energy for that early spring bloom.

See one here:
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/hepaticanobi.html



Greg G.

Larry Jaques wrote:

> http://www.mounet.com/~jdye/hepatica.html Purty purkle flower.
> I LIKE IT!

Purkle... Interesting. Purple. Sparkly. Purkle. Yeah, I like it too.

I guess you have good taste after all, Larry.

I guess.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Andy Dingley wrote:

> Doh ! Liverwort of course

Oh yeah, liverwort. I forgot that name.

> You do find them in some parts of the UK, but I've never heard of them
> obviously flowering before. We don't see flowers until the snowdrops
> appear.

We don't have snowdrops here unless they're cultivated (and I don't have any
in my garden.) I would guess these generally flower around the same time
as, or slightly before snowdrops though. It's not uncommon to see the
flowers poking up out of the snow, if the snow cover is light enough to
permit it.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 10:49:56 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Andy Dingley wrote:
>
>> What's a hepatica ?
>
>It's an ephemeral wildflower native to many parts.

Doh ! Liverwort of course

You do find them in some parts of the UK, but I've never heard of them
obviously flowering before. We don't see flowers until the snowdrops
appear.

Dave Balderstone wrote:

>> Just don't ask me to tell you where Saskatoon is on a map. ;)
>
> 52 degrees 10 minutes north, 106 degrees 43 minutes west, of course.
>
> Or, straight north of Montana about 3.5 hours.

Yeah, like I thought. Out yonder somewhere, and up a bit.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Swingman said:

>I can always tell by the pecan trees when spring is sprunging ... they're
>pretty hard to fool down here. I've yet to see a pecan tree put out leaves
>until all threat of a freeze is well past.
>
>There is, however, something strange going on. The trees in the
>neighborhood, of all varieties, _just_ dropped the majority of their leaves
>in the last two weeks. You usually see folks raking leaves long before now.

It's been abnormally warm here as well - 68 degrees for the last
couple of days, and nights in the upper 50s. Just cleaned out the
pond for the winter - and it's January! I hope this warm spell isn't
a cruel teaser before the 20 degree weather shows - it's sure
confusing all of our plants.

I'm with Silvan on this one - I'm ready for spring!


Greg G.

On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:55:03 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I rooted around in the leaf litter today, and lo, I found a solitary
>hepatica in *bloom*.

What's a hepatica ? The only hepatica I know is the beefsteak fungus,
the bracket fungus that gives us brown oak.

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 20:12:09 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> brought forth from the murky depths:

>Larry Jaques wrote:
>
>> http://www.mounet.com/~jdye/hepatica.html Purty purkle flower.
>> I LIKE IT!
>
>Purkle... Interesting. Purple. Sparkly. Purkle. Yeah, I like it too.
>
>I guess you have good taste after all, Larry.
>
>I guess.

Right. It doesn't stop with being anti-poly.
I'm also a gourmand. (Good eater, Davey)


----------------------------------------------------
Thesaurus: Ancient reptile with excellent vocabulary
http://diversify.com Dynamic Website Applications
====================================================

Dave Balderstone wrote:

>> Saskatoon?
>
> Ayup.

Damn I'm good. :)

Just don't ask me to tell you where Saskatoon is on a map. ;)

>> It's hard to keep all you Canukistanis straight.
>
> If the gummint follows through on the pot decrim bill, that'll be true
> up here too!

Heh... You'll be the ones dealing with a wave of illegals coming north of
the border... :)

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 16:11:09 -0600, Dave Balderstone
<[email protected]> scribbled:
>Here it's currently -29C (-21F for the Murricans) with a windchill
>warning (with windchill it's -42C (-46F for the Murricans)).

Ha! It was only -26C in Whitehorse at the same time. After a couple of
hours of the Propane heater, three little ceramic heaters kept the
shop toasty. Spent the day doing renovations in our ex-basement suite,
soon to be my new office. Tenants left and our mortgage is paid off.
Made a bunch of shelves out of MDO, and put up a steel stud wall (I
hate that shit, in retrospect it would have been faster to make it out
of wood), drywalled and taped it.

Luigi
Replace "no" with "yk" for real email address

"Silvan" wrote in message
> Charlie Self wrote:
>
> > You wish. It has been warm here, too, in the high 60s yesterday, low 60s
>
> It's all a state of mind for me. I go through this every year. You
should
> have heard my kid's teacher when she was teaching seasons and he kept
> telling her "Mrs. [name] it's spring! Daddy says it's spring!" :)
>
> Anyway, I'm stoked. Usually this little tantalizing prelude to spring
> proper hits about mid-February or so. That's when I snap out of my winter
> funk. This is hitting about six weeks early.
>
> This leaves me hopeful that winter might not be as bad as I feared.
> Hepatica blooming is a damn good sign to my eyes.
>
> > grown almost 2" since last cutting in early November. Weird. But reports
> > for later in the week are calling for 30 degree highs, or lower.
>
> Doesn't matter how cold it gets. It's spring, dammit! :)

I can always tell by the pecan trees when spring is sprunging ... they're
pretty hard to fool down here. I've yet to see a pecan tree put out leaves
until all threat of a freeze is well past.

There is, however, something strange going on. The trees in the
neighborhood, of all varieties, _just_ dropped the majority of their leaves
in the last two weeks. You usually see folks raking leaves long before now.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 1/02/04

Greg G. wrote:

> a cruel teaser before the 20 degree weather shows - it's sure
> confusing all of our plants.

That's always the down side. I have a hydrangea that's only barely hardy
here, and it always gets confused by these little spells, then gets nipped
hard. I expect this will be a particularly bad year, since we're having
our spring tease so early.

> I'm with Silvan on this one - I'm ready for spring!

Yeah bayyyybe! Think spring!

It has been pretty weird, I must say. I just forked out $160 for a propane
heater for my shop, and most of the week it has been so warm with all my
insulation and the blanket over the doors that I have been wishing I had
A/C out there. It got up to 80 in the shop today, and I was sweating like a
hog in my long johns.

Unfortunately, it's not going to last. Highs in the low 30s by mid-week.

:(

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Dave Balderstone wrote:

>> I know the calendar says it's January, but the forest says it's
>> officially spring!
>
> You suck.
>
> Here it's currently -29C (-21F for the Murricans) with a windchill
> warning (with windchill it's -42C (-46F for the Murricans)).

Gack! If we ever saw a temperature that low, it's likely that several
people would die.

Where do you live? I forgot. You're not the Yukon guy are you? (I think
that's Luigi...)

Saskatoon?

It's hard to keep all you Canukistanis straight.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Charlie Self wrote:

> You wish. It has been warm here, too, in the high 60s yesterday, low 60s

It's all a state of mind for me. I go through this every year. You should
have heard my kid's teacher when she was teaching seasons and he kept
telling her "Mrs. [name] it's spring! Daddy says it's spring!" :)

Anyway, I'm stoked. Usually this little tantalizing prelude to spring
proper hits about mid-February or so. That's when I snap out of my winter
funk. This is hitting about six weeks early.

This leaves me hopeful that winter might not be as bad as I feared.
Hepatica blooming is a damn good sign to my eyes.

> grown almost 2" since last cutting in early November. Weird. But reports
> for later in the week are calling for 30 degree highs, or lower.

Doesn't matter how cold it gets. It's spring, dammit! :)

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 13:53:32 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> brought forth from the murky depths:

>On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 21:55:03 -0500, Silvan
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I rooted around in the leaf litter today, and lo, I found a solitary
>>hepatica in *bloom*.
>
>What's a hepatica ? The only hepatica I know is the beefsteak fungus,
>the bracket fungus that gives us brown oak.

Good question.
http://www.mounet.com/~jdye/hepatica.html Purty purkle flower.
I LIKE IT!

Google for tons of other liverwort plants.


========================================================
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==========================

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 00:38:33 GMT, Larry Jaques
<novalidaddress@di\/ersify.com> claimed:

>Right. It doesn't stop with being anti-poly.
>I'm also a gourmand. (Good eater, Davey)

From Harrap's New shorter French and English dictionary:

Gourmand: (a) Gourmand, glutton.

Luigi
Replace "no" with "yk" for real email address

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:41:12 -0800, Luigi Zanasi <[email protected]>
brought forth from the murky depths:

>On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 16:11:09 -0600, Dave Balderstone
><[email protected]> scribbled:
>>Here it's currently -29C (-21F for the Murricans) with a windchill
>>warning (with windchill it's -42C (-46F for the Murricans)).
>
>Ha! It was only -26C in Whitehorse at the same time. After a couple of

Balmy!








(The inhabitants, not the weather, sir.)


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