Almost Summer for a Day

 

 

 

 

What can compare to an almost-summer day-- a warm breeze, the shadows and the light through the leaves, iris flowers and peonies blooming!

So, open the windows, get out the summer chairs, put on the shorts and T-shirts. This is the kind of day we wait for all winter.

And even if the winter just past was not so bad as winters go, it was still dark and cold, still ice on the sidewalks and there were days of subzero wind chills--that was brutal. What will next winter bring?

No, no, don't think about that now.  Winter will come soon enough.  Now, let's fill our heads with summer things. Laundry drying in the breeze.  The sound of push reel mowers that almost sound like rain.  

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer in Chicago.  June 1 marks the official start of meteorological summer, and astronomical summer begins with the solstice on June 21. 

June 1 is also the beginning of hurricane season.  NOAA predicts a near-normal season with El Nino and warm Atlantic waters setting the stage.  There is a probability of 12-17 named storms,  and 1-4 major hurricanes.  You can read more, here.

But today,  Memorial Day,  is more than a holiday of grilling and mattress sales and no mail delivery. There are people working today.  There is remembrance of wars past, and those who died.  Remember them. Honor them, today.  

https://twitter.com/NOAA/status/166176686980617345?s=20

A thousand days in May

 

There's a line in a song about a thousand Julys, but what about all the days in May?

Yes, May Day, the first day of pagan summer. about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Now, the longest days are coming.

Days of increasing green, and days of lilacs, bluebells, bleeding hearts, lily of the valley, dandelions and violets, and buds on the peonies.

Days of nests and sparrows on the roofs.

and roofers on the roofs, carpenters building new steps, and painters painting garages. 

Days of blue sky and clouds of white flowers. Days of gray clouds and rain. 

The sound of  power mowers and push reel mowers that sound like rain. 

Days of two seasons, or three-- lake-effect cold fronts,  jackets in the morning and evening.   

And severe weather days-- thunderstorms,  high wind warnings, hail, tornadoes.  Snow and wildfires in Canada.  Weather patterns changing, and hurricane season approaching. 

And the plague is still with us. 

Even as WHO  has declared May 11 the end of the pandemic emergency, those with immune system issues, people over 65,  and essential workers are advised to get a second bi-valent booster now, just in case.

Still, the lilacs are blooming again!

I wish you fields of dandelion wishes, and lovely May days to come....

Days of Dandelions

 

Spring is here, and soon the grass and lawnmowers. Do people still strive for the perfect lawn, to walk on a carpet of grass--lush and green, with no unwanted weeds like clover or dandelions?

 The grass thrives in cool and damp conditions, like the gardens of the great mansions of England.   Maybe there is still an envy of the aristocracy in striving for the perfect lawn. To have enough space to grow nothing but grass with ornamental borders.  

Not like a crowded  cottage garden, where what  available space there is is used for growing lettuce and beans and eggplants,  tomatoes and peppers,  and lots of flowers, too.  

And what of the so-called weeds?  

Clover is a soft and resilient ground cover.  It also enriches the soil.

Dandelions have many uses.  Young leaves are edible.  The root is medicinal.  You can make a healing salve with dandelions. You can make dandelion tea, and dandelion wine.  

Rabbits eat the stems like spaghetti.

And bees love the flowers. Imagine, dandelion honey!

Oh yes, children love dandelions, too. They look like something a child would draw, in chalk on a sidewalk,  or a yellow crayon on paper, a round yellow flower like the sun.

April is National Poetry Month

 

 

 

April  may be the most poetic month---alive again, the earth in bloom---flowers and new green leaves.  Buds on the lilacs,  and today, the magnolias are blooming!

And how many poets have been inspired to write about April and Spring?

Wordsworth and the daffodils--

and ee cummings--in just spring---

Chaucer's  opening of Canterbury Tales --When that April with showers sweet with fruit  (modern English translation)

and moody modern Mr. Eliot--April is the cruelest month...

Simon and Garfunkel  sang  "April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain..."

 There are Japanese poets who write about the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms.  There are  French poets writing about rain...

 And Shakespeare--"thou art thy mothers glass, and she in thee beholds the lovely April of her prime" 

 And William Carlos Williams---the alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of leaves...

April--love and spring  

when everything is new again. 

March Madness and April Fools

 

 

 When I talk about March Madness,  I don't mean college basketball or Donald Trump indictments. When I talk about April Fools I don't mean road construction, potholes or guys wearing shorts in  breezy 45 degrees.  I'm talking about the weather.

I'm talking about Severe Weather Season and 70 mile an hour winds, power outages and tornado warnings. 

I'm talking about Friday March 31, when the Chicago area was under a tornado watch until 10:00 PM.       The watch was lifted at 8:30 PM.

The chance for severe weather stretched from Arkansas and Missouri to Indiana and Ohio.  The Storm Prediction Center was not joking that there was a chance of particularly dangerous conditions. 

Friday morning was mild and calm, temps in the mid-60's.  Enjoy it while it lasts, said my neighbor,  walking his dog in the alley. 

I packed my scram bag, just in case. This includes--flashlight, batteries, a jacket, important papers, checkbook,  cash,  a portable radio, and an extra black sweater. I do not have a mobile phone. I do have a phone jack in the basement for the landline and an outlet to plug in the battery for the laptop. 

What's in your scram bag?  Do you have multiple ways to receive weather updates?  Have a safety plan.

 In the evening, I watched weather updates on WGN-TV.  The whole weather team was there.  Tom Skilling is great! He is so calm, yet excited about squall lines. 

Yes, there were multiple tornadoes! People were killed.  Little Rock, Arkansas was impacted. A roof was blown off the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Illinois. There were tornadoes in Iowa and Indiana.   You can read the Accu-Weather  reports  here. 

Saturday, April 1  was brisk and cooler. There was not much damage here in south Oak Park.  It was a Saturday, and there were clementines at the Carnival Grocery.  Pigeons were dancing on the ledges of the Bank. Life was beautiful, miraculous and ordinary. 

Rain, Snow, Sun, Green

 

 

Mid-March, and the morning 3/4 moon in the budding branches.  Spring forward! More light in the evenings.

Meanwhile,  there is snow and flooding in California. A Nor'easter in the northeast. Here, by the shores of Lake Michigan, where they dyed the Chicago river green for the St. Patrick's Day Parade, there are clouds and blue sky,   and snow that melts in the afternoon.

The ground is soft, already the smell of mud,  already buds on the branches, already the first brave spring flowers.

 I wonder, is St. Patrick's Day really a celebration of returning green?

This year, the vivid greens are a welcome sight--maybe because we haven't had so much snow this year, and mostly overcast days. This winter has been more grays and browns, not so much clear blue sky and bright sun on snow.  We long for colors and light.

But Spring is coming. The March equinox is on March 20.  Amid all the uncertainty of this world, plagues and wars, politics, and bills and taxes, Spring is coming, sure as sunrise and the changing moon.

The First Full Moon of Spring

 

 It's been kind of undecided around here lately. Sun in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, or clouds in the morning, sun in the afternoon. Some people wearing shorts, others in winter parkas. Some with combinations of both!  And while astronomical spring begins on March 20,  meteorological spring began on March 1. 

 And now, the  nights of March 6 and 7 bring the March full moon.  It could be the last full moon of astronomical winter, or the first full moon of meteorological spring.   

It is also known as the Worm Moon, and it has other  names---Sugar Moon, Crows Come Back Moon, and the Lenten Moon,  names evocative of spring.

The Old Farmer's Almanac has more information about the names of the March Moon. You can read more here. 

Yes, the Worm Moon is a good name.   Now is the soft ground, the smell of mud and the robins returning.

We have been so fortunate here. The snowstorm of a few days ago missed us. The worst of the snow/rain mix was east and south, a snow globe in Valparaiso!  And tornadoes in Indiana and Ohio.

There was so much uncertainty about the storm---where, when, how much snow. So much depends on the storm track, the surface temperature and the snow bands.  

Was this the last storm of winter?

The robins are back, and the sparrows who are with us all winter are chirping from the rooftops.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the moon will be full,  rising over the trees with fat buds on the branches.