Winter hangs on

I know, I know. It is February (albeit the last day) and it is STILL winter. But snow on bulbs - just now coming up and trying their best to bring spring - is just not fair to the little guys.

Crocuses.

Daffodils.

Hyacinths.

OK, it's time for spring

A couple of days ago, it was over 50 degrees and really quite nice. The last two days, not so much. It's cold, it's windy, and we wish we were headed to Florida. We were in the bank this morning and a female customer announced she was going to Florida until March; we all asked if we could come with her. :)
Florida notwithstanding, we saw skunk cabbages in bloom in the swampy area of Brukner Nature Center. Skunk cabbages are the first wildflowers to bloom, so we have hope. Also, we saw some winter aconites just starting to bloom in a neighborhood nearby. We know spring is coming!

Frozen water in the downspout. Interesting in December, tolerable in January, enough already in February.

Poor Bob is cold as he refills the bird feeder. ("Take the picture. I'm freezing!")

Skunk cabbage - its metabolism generates enough heat to melt the ice. Now, that's a tough plant.

The flowers are the little tiny guys on the spadix inside the spathe (the mottled brown-green covering).

Ice in the creek at Brukner Nature Center.

Mid-February

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day. We've had snow flurries for two days. No real accumulation (which means no shoveling the driveway!) - just snowflakes flying through the air.

Duct tape on my slippers. In response to this, Bob got me a pair of Betty Boop slippers for Valentine's Day!

This is salt in action. Salt (not necessarily NaCl: any salt would work, as does sugar) lowers the freezing point of water, so the area around the salt crystal is free of snow.

Isabella in a playful mood.

Happy Groundhog Day

We heard Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning. This means an early spring (why rodents are used for weather prediction, I really don't know). But, we'll take predictions for an early spring anywhere we can get them! I have no recent photos of any local woodchucks - they're sensibly hibernating right now.  Each time we try to photograph the woodchuck who lives over by Miami Shores Golf Course (during warmer weather, of course), it runs away and all we get are blurry woodchuck photos. So, no shots of woodchucks today. I'll post one of Bob's waterfall pics instead.

This is the falls in West Milton.