Winter’s Passing

Today is the last day of February–gardeners take heart and prepare for spring!

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Today is the last day of February – gardeners take pith and prepare for spring ! Although it might not seem like it with these icy temperature and snow and sleet still in the prognosis – it will happen . March fetch all sort of spring and green celebrations from the full dirt ball moonshine , daylight preservation clock time , St. Patrick ’s Day and the vernal equinox – hallelujah !

We have had a hellacious winter here in zona 7 Maryland – one of the cold one on record . I have burn a cord of wood in the past two weeks trying to keep the house tender – temps have been been mostly in the 20s perchance 30s in the twenty-four hour period and teens to below 0 at night – so it is hard to keep tender . flop now we still have a good 10 - inch of C on the ground with a layer of wintry deoxyephedrine on top . Besides the wood job – carry it in and stoke the range 24-hour interval and night and emptying the woodashes on the garden , I have been shoveling and wholesale , cleaning off motorcar , produce caterpillar track on the driveway , keeping sink cabinet door unresolved with piddle barely dribble on the 0 - degree nights , verify I have water on hand , along with candles and match handy and flashlights with batteries that work , make and imbibe lots of soup and tea leaf , and feed the chick .

think of that birds lose their food for thought informant with sleet and snow – they ca n’t get bugs and berry or urine – and they need to wipe out a mountain of protein - rich nutrients to maintain body heat ( they are ardent - blooded ) and remain active in these frigid temperatures . I ’ve gone through quite a lot of birdseed – I’d estimate there ’s at least 50 to 75 birds feeding continually throughout the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. – and now there are 1 to 3 squirrels who have joined the feeding frenzy . The general hoot populace includes bluejays and cardinal being the most colorful ; mourning doves and jays are the large other than the episodic crowing ; of class there are the sparrows , tufted titmouse and black - capped chickadee ; and the juncos with their snow-clad bloodless breasts , who I only see in winter , are background bird feeder ; the rufous - sided towhee with their russet white meat are also ground eater ; the woodpeckers soar upwards into the confluent now and again as do the nuthatches – I have intercourse how they hop-skip down the tree trunks upside down ; and there is also the little Carolina wren , who is a well-disposed curious creature and she somehow is lift into the greenhouse on occasion . I can not for the living of me figure out how she is getting in , however she likes the warmheartedness and there are all sorts of things that she beak at under the plant and along the windowledges . It is much harder getting her out , and I might leave her in except for the cat – and the bashing about the house and windowpane – I have saved her more times than I care to tell . They say that cats have nine lives – well Wrennie has more than that . There are bluebird in the closest bluebird house who have been residing there all winter , however I have never see them on the feeder .

After all of the sunflower cum I have been feeding them , I am thinking gravely of cultivating some large sunflowers this forthcoming season . I always grow some , however I could develop a lot more . Most all the birds have it off the oily seeds . The small birds seem to wish the wild food for thought premix and the doves especially relish the cracked Zea mays . I hold open up Malus pumila and pear cores and peel and turn off them up , as well as the periodic citrus fruit . We are surrounded by woods and the birds are up and at the eating sphere at first light and only depart as dusk approaches to rest for the nighttime . There are many site regarding wintertime feeding , here are two of interestingness : https://www.wbu.com / education / winterbirdfeeding.htmlandhttps://www.drsfostersmith.com / pic / article.cfm?aid=2060 .

Well I did get side tracked there about feeding the birds …

This Thursday , March 5 is theFull Worm Moonand I wonder if our earthworm garden allies are burgeon underground and dreaming of spring or in hiberantion or a half frozen land …

The following weekend , just after the stroke of midnight on Saturday , Daylight Saving Timewill start on Sunday , March 8 ; let us wallow in the lighting and longer days , however it means produce up in the dark for former risers .

I ’d be delinquent not to mentionSt . Patty ’s Dayon March 17 ( my gran was a McCleary ! ) when many of us will be wearin ’ the green ( if you do n’t you just might get pinched ) and some fortunate folks will be planting their potato , a customary tradition in warmer climate .

TheVernal Equinoxoccurs on Friday the 20 at 6:45 pm – and we gardeners will do a jig andWelcome Spring !

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