Day Five: Watching from the window

Sunday March 4th

• Temperature: 35 degrees – feels like 25
• Wind: 18 mph
• Humidity 78%

First off I have to tell you I am a gardener. Can you tell?  No, I don’t have a fancy garden or a large farmstead. I have a yard in the middle of a large city. I grow veggies in my front yard and flowers, bushes and trees in the back. My neighbors are gardeners as well so they understand when the tomato cages go up in front of my house.

My focus most of the time is on the weather. I am a constant watcher from the window. I wonder about clouds, wind and dew point. I record the weather in a garden journal almost daily. I love watching storms go by and trumping out into the back yard to see what is going on with critters and plants.

But today I have had it!  Enough is enough – I woke to the sound of rain. Now you have to understand I am in Minnesota and there is a foot or more of snow on the ground. Rain – really??  I love the sound of rain but not when it is turning to ice which it did very quickly.

So we now sit with rain, ice and melting snow (yes, thank goodness melting snow). The weather forecast however informs us that snow is on its way for Monday’s rush hour. Not just a little snow but another 8 to 9 inches.  Oh and maybe up to 11 inches in some locations.

It is March and I know that historically March can be one of our snowiest months for us but really? Last weekend we had 12 inches of snow and two days before that we had 6 inches. It has been either very cold, cold and snow or snowing since early November. I am now ready to see something other than white and dirty white. I am ready to feel the sun on my face and the warm breeze in my hair.

I need green and a few dots of red, yellow and orange. I need to see green buds, and young flowers to rest my eyes on. The stark white is painful at this time. It has just been to much cold and snow.

I promise to not continue with this complaint. I promise to share the green plants growing in my basement and the winter seeds sitting in small milk garden greenhouses on my back deck. I promise that later this month – well maybe in April – the hoop house will be up and you will see the beginnings of my summer garden sunning themselves on my deck. I am sure spring is coming it just is taking a bit longer here in the north land.

P.S. Monday AM

• Temperature: 35 degrees and feels like23
• Wind: 22 mph
• Humidity: 63%

Windy – the streets and sidewalks are full of ice, schools are closed due to incoming snow. (This is first time I can remember the schools closing ahead of time.) The skies are deep grey and we are awaiting the snow – due for lunch I am told. It should arrive just about 12 noon.

That said – the birds are singing and the oak leaves are leaving the trees letting me know there are new buds. They are just beginning to grow on the ends of twigs pushing those leaves off and into the wind. All these are the little signs of spring that we watch for here in the north land.