h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For those of us in the northern hemisphere we are finally over the "hump" in the long haul through winter - the days are getting longer and spring is on the way.

What signs of spring have you spotted in your locale

On my New Years Day Walk I noted -

Daisys in flower
Sweet Violet begining to flower
Song Thrush singing
Wood Pigeon cooing
Drone Flies (Honey Bee Mimics)
and one Bumble Bee

Can I point out that whilst we may be over the hump in terms of distance from the Sun, there is a lag in the time it takes for the Earth to warm.
January and February are actually colder on average than December.

So we're far from out of Winter yet.


Cup half-full type me

Yes, I was thinking what you're thinking Orcus.

This is how I work it out: June 21st is the longest day and it can still get uncomfortably hot up to about August 21st. Therefore, by my reckoning, if Dec 21st is shortest day then it can still get uncomfortably cold up to February 21st. That's when I start to get optimist. Overall though, nothing gives me a boost like the first sign of daffodil shoots.

I think though days getting longer makes it feel better. By about mid jan I start really noticing a bit of extra light and even if the weather is cold and lousy psycologically i feel better about it.

FB

I was delighted to see snowdrop shoots in my step-mothers garden (Wiltshire) last week

Day length is a key factor for many species rather than temperature
This can cause real problems when there are codependent species that are are triggered by different cues.
Blue Tits and Great Tits nesting is triggered by day length and until recently this coinciede with the first big flush of caterpillars on young oak leaves.
Oak leafs are triggered by temperature change and with global warming they erupt two weeks early than in the past, so by the time the birds start nesting oak leafs are tough and bitter and the caterpillars are pupating.

There's about five inches of snow covering my area [Boston, Massachusetts]. There's an arctic air mass passing through today, with temperatures going into the teens Fahrenheit. We rarely have a Winter that doesn't have some days in the single digits. That's low enough to threaten frozen water pipes.

South of England here and on Monday morning I saw two robins at the same end of the garden, not fighting.

"Road closed until May 2013"

*snicker*

I saw an unidentified flying insect on the car windscreen today.

My pulmonaria have been in flower since at least last week

The violas on my porch seem pathetic as they bow under four inches of snow covering them.

My magnolia tree began to bud in December. The buds are quite noticeable now. I also have snowdrop shoots and other green shoots which I assume are crocus. I just went to check and found fat buds where my peony bush was last year. Yesterday a squirrel ran in front of my car just as I pulled up at my mother's house. As I locked the car up, it ran back across the road again, to the previous garden. Hoarding or raiding? In my garden bird notes in December I saw a wren and heard a robin but didn't spot it. Since Christmas plenty of blackbirds around, no doubt due to the many available red berries on the holly bush and I know last year's fox cubs are still around because of the evidence.

We've got all sorts of signs of spring here on England's south coast, 12c, birds singing, daffs emerging, even a few flowers; but the seasons don't neatly line up one after the other, and we could well have several inches of snow at any time up until April.

Crocuses seem able to cope with unexpected bouts of cold weather. I bought some daffodil bulbs, but have been too lazy to plant them so far.

Well it's far too late now - they should have gone in in September! Which reminds me, I must get on with planting some garlic...

Next Septewmber is fine with me.

Yeah but are you storing them properly - won't some new ones then be more effective?

They're still in the box they came in. I will probably wait until a warm day in Spring and then plant them anyway. If they have somehow lost strength, they either won't come up, or they'll emerge in a weakened condition. However, if they're still in good condition, maybe everything will be all right. Empirically, the only way to be absolutely sure is to plant them and see what happens. If I can find them when Spring [or any other season] comes.

Well again, yes of course you *can* do that. But if you actually want some nice daffodils is to nuke them from orbit and then start again with fresh ones next September. It's not as if they're expensive

Can't you see I'm just trying to encourage you to garden properly man?
You'll be planting tomatoes in June next