Rete

Was wondering why my daffs, tulips and lilies didn't come up last year or this and this thread answered that. We have voles in the front garden. The stray cats in the neighborhood have been feeding on them but not soon enough to save a few from the voles' dinner table.

WEBlue

Yep, still winter here too. It probably won't snow here on the coast, but we'll get lots of rain & thunderstorms. All the local roads that were just starting to dry out will now be re-flooded, including a neighbour's basement if the power goes out again, halting her sump pump.

robin1234

We have an ice storm, worse than predicted. In fact, I'd say it's the worst ice storm since January 1998. The car was encased in a solid block of ice; the only way I could get in to start the engine was through the passenger side door (downwind, fortunately.) I ran the engine and blowers for over an hour, then was able to get most of the ice off. It's not even that cold, maybe 25 degrees.

Roads are virtually impassable, we decided not to go out ...

lizzyq

I might have to try that. Anemone corms are definitely on the diet sheet for chipmunks, they had some of them within hours of me planting them last year �


Let us both hope that they are immortal!

WEBlue

Sounds like a wise decision.... Stay safe, Robin & OH!

It's chucking it down here, but only rain, wind, more rain, more wind...the usual drill for the last two months but without the ice & snow.

The husband got lots of wood into the garage (again), and I restocked our battery supply, so we're fairly prepared for another power failure. I'm thankful we had nearly a week of dry weather to harden the ground a bit so perhaps the trees won't blow over quite so easily this time round....

WEBlue

Daffs are usually not the first choice of voles, or other rodents for that matter, but they can be disturbed--'rearranged', so to speak, by the vigorous digging these rodents will do to get at the bulbs they DO like. Sometimes they may get disturbed enough--or even turned upside down--to perish. That's my theory, anyway.

robin1234

Thanks!

My sister emailed from Sussex yesterday; "18 degrees C here today. Mediocre Spring so far." Ha Ha. Bloody English, don't know when they're lucky.

Got up this morning, the trees have shed a lot of branches, large and small. We never lost power, but in the village they did. (It's usually the other way around!)

I'm worried about the birds, the robins especially, which are back in large numbers. Two days ago they were happily rooting around for worms etc., now there's an inch or two of ice covering everything.

Rete

Damn but I remember that storm. Was in Ottawa and no way to get back to the States and living without heat, light or stove for days. The destruction of the trees on the Northway and up through Montreal and Ottawa was horrendous.

robin1234

We were without power for twelve days. I remember standing out on Rt 11 when the National Guard were finally able to get through with supplies and equipment. And when we finally got back power, it was a line crew from Hawaii that rebuilt the supply on our road and turned us back on!

Rete

We were far more fortunate. Only without power for 5 days before power was restored but still unable to get a plane back to lower NY. One day when we still didn't have power, we were able to free the car and the roads were cleared and we drove to Denny's for a hot breakfast and were allowed to remain for as long as we wanted to get warm. Used a small camp stove for heating tea water and cans of soup the other days. Thankfully it was a townhouse and there was a small front porch to put the camp stove on for cooking. We envied the neighbors across the way with a generator.

Hiro11

So far, this is the 4th coldest April in recorded history here in Chicago. Since records go back to the 1860s, that's saying something. It's been unseasonably cold and wet for two months now here. As an avid cyclist, I've done fewer miles YTD this year than I have in any of the past ten years as the conditions have been pretty much unridable for most of the past 6-8 weeks.

Of course I'll take 31 degrees and sleeting with a 20 MPH wind over the 30" of snow Wisconsin had over the weekend. NY and NJ have had an awful spring as well. Still, it needs to start warming up now, thanks.

Nutmegger

Uh oh -- water's over the bridge! Hope my swans don't swim away! Edit: the pix were the right way up when I loaded them, oops! All help welcome!

Jan Alaska

Came home Sunday from 60F and sunny in dear old blighty to 30+ inches of snow. We've had more snow now than all of January and February combined and now I owe the plow guy for 5 more passes.

*Spring is cancelled in NoMi, next stop summer*

we hope ...........

mcelwest

So, with Spring being what it is, and trees taking a savage beating...my neighbours tree has fallen down straddling his land and mine. Now, he's a cantankerous old bugger and refusing to deal with the part of the tree that is on my property ("your land, your problem"). Simple etiquette would be, "yup, darn wind, I'll clean that mess up for you as it's my tree". Anyhoo, what's the protocol here? Each to their own? Thanks.

Nutek

I'd do it myself. Not worth the hassle.