Yellow Is The Color Of Hope....

that spring really is just around the corner.

Finally, the daffodils have begun to bloom. Even though the grass is still brown and the leaves haven't started budding on the trees. The daffodil blossoms bring a surge of hope that spring is coming.

The daytime temperatures have been in the mid seventies for the last few days with night time temps in the middle fifties and today it is forecast that we should reach eighty degrees. Perfect weather but WAIT!!!!!!!!!! Wednesday night the temps are supposed to drop into the thirties again.

Oh well....it's wonderful while it lasts.

I wish you all sunshine, daffodils blooming, warm temperatures and hope!!!!!

Today There's Blue Skies Over My Head....

but this is what we woke up to last Thursday morning (February 9th).

This amount of snow may not look like much to some of you northern people but believe me....It's a lot for our East Central Mississippi area.

While getting snow in this area puts a kink into everything....driving, work, school and most everything else....it does add a lot of moisture to our drought ridden soil. For that I am thankful.

I'm still looking for spring. Everyone around here is thinking the snow last Wednesday night and Thursday morning is our last real cold....I'm just smiling and thinking....."NOT!" There's still plenty of time for a couple more snows to fall and maybe more.

I remember about twenty-five years ago the ground was covered with snow on April 6th. It's a long time until April 6th. So we shall see just what the weather has in store for this little town in East Central Mississippi.

I've learned this winter to "roll with the flow". What will be...will be. There's nothing we can do about the weather.

Even though I'm not crazy about snow it did get the children a day off school (the teachers had to go in but later ....Poor William), put moisture into the soil and it was pretty to look at.

If Variety Is The Spice Of Life.....

People living in Mississippi live a very "Spicy" life....Weatherwise anyway. Since last Saturday we have had one day that the temps were in the mid seventies and beautiful sunshine, three days of clouds and temps in the sixties, one day of thunderstorms and heavy rain, one day of sleet that covered the ground, another day of cold, freezing rain and today we have a sprinkling of snow.

Here we can pretend we live anywhere in the world from the tropics to the Artic!!!

That's wintertime in Mississippi.

Now summertime is another story...Living here in summer is like living in a sauna located in the Sahara Desert!!!!! Hot and Humid.

Even so, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather live. Variety is a good thing. I reckon it has to be since there's nothing I can do about the weather. :)

The Daffodils Ain't Got Brave Yet!!!!

William and I worked in the yard most of the day Saturday. The daffodils haven't begun to poke their heads out of the ground yet. There must be some more really cold weather coming soon.

Saturday was a beautiful and warm day. Temps reached the mid-seventies and the sun was bright as any spring sunshine could be. However, today is a gray, rainy day with mid-fifties for high temperatures.

We did get a lot accomplished on Saturday. I planted a big bed of wildflowers mixed with some older flower seed that I've had for several years. I don't know if they will come up but if they do then we will have all sorts of pretty flowers in our front yard this spring and summer.

The bed that I planted the wildflowers in also has some daffodils, day lillies and Black-Eyed Susans in it. It should be a sea of color when they all start blooming in the spring and summer and possibly on into fall.

William hurt his back working on the flower beds. When he sits down he can hardly stand up. He will be seeing a doctor in the morning if everything goes as planned. He's been in misery all night Saturday night and all day today.

Even though the daffodils aren't brave enough to start showing up, the forsythia and Japanese Magnolia are brave little soldiers and are marching right on into spring with the buds popping out up and down the branches of the bushes.

That puts a smile on my face for I look forward to the first flowers of spring and it won't be long before they're HERE!!!!!!

I See Signs Of Spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sakura (the pooch) and I took a little walk around the yard this week. There are signs of spring. OH YEAH!!!!! The Forsythia is budding. The Japanese Magnolia has huge buds on it and the snowball bush (or tree as it's tall as the house is high) has small clusters of buds on it.

We didn't check the Daffodils. I need to do that in the morning while I prune the roses. If the Daffodils are poking their little heads through the frost burned grass then I'll know that spring is well on the way.

Another way I know spring is coming is.....I have itchy fingers. The sun is shining so pretty today and that makes me want to dig in the garden. I think I'm going to order some English pea seeds and plant a bed of those. William loves English peas and he really likes fresh ones much better than those canned things we buy.

While I'm sure we will have some more bone-chilling cold there's hope for warmer days. I've seen the signs!!!!

Where Am I?

The deep south has become the Artic! Snow has fallen twice already this winter when we usually go several winters without any sign of snow. The temperatures have dropped into the teens with windchill factors in single digit numbers. So I'm asking where am I?

I ask this because Chicago, Illinois has temps warmer than East Central Mississippi. Therefore I scratched my head and wonder "Should I move to Chicago or move further south? Much further south?"

After a good deal of head scratching I've decided to hang around this area for spring is just around the corner and further south is hotter than here in East Central Mississippi and Chicago is hot in the summer time too.

I'm trying to look on the bright side while hoping this cold weather kills the ticks and chiggers (better known in Mississippi as Red Bugs) and there'll be less scratching of the whole body this spring and summer.

No where is perfect, although beside the atipical weather we're having at this time, East Central Mississippis is pretty dern near it. Just sayin',

Snow???????

According to the weather forecast between four and eight inches of snow is coming our way. Not the pretty white stuff of which lovely pictures are made of but SLUSHY, NASTY stuff of which slipping and sliding and wrecks are made of.

Global warming? We've had two winters of global warming so far. The winter of 2009/2010 was dreadfully cold with snow and sleet. Now the winter of 2010/2011 looks to be the same.

We're stocked up on peanut butter and bread. Got the gas tank full so bring on the sleet, the ice, the snowy slush. We're ready.