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2937. alistairConnor - 4/16/2005 12:10:36 PM

Mostly sleet yesterday : I thought we'd be flirting with the snowline all weekend. But at breakfast :

... and it's still falling thick and fast. I've never seen so much in April.

2938. Ronski - 4/16/2005 3:22:29 PM

What elevation are you?

2939. alistairConnor - 4/16/2005 4:26:16 PM

About 700 metres.

It's still falling steadily, but not sticking to the trees, and not getting any thicker because it's melting as it goes.

There's a fair heap in front of the door here where it slides off the solar panels.

It won't help the flowers grow, but it won't really harm them like a hard frost would.

2940. Ronski - 4/17/2005 4:23:07 AM

Primula polyanthus, in my Mom's backyard:


2941. Ronski - 4/17/2005 4:24:42 AM

Next to it, a blue one:


2942. alistairConnor - 4/17/2005 12:16:57 PM

Primevères! We have them wild, but they are plain yellow.

2943. Ronski - 4/17/2005 2:33:27 PM

Trillium luteum, in bud:

2944. Ronski - 4/17/2005 2:54:52 PM

Pink hyacinth, at Mom's:


2945. thoughtful - 4/18/2005 1:22:46 PM

Ronski, great shots. I love trillium...please post a shot when it's blooming.

2946. wabbit - 4/18/2005 2:02:51 PM

Briscoe Lake is no more

We're done with snow for the season, but the snowmelt and the recent rain did some damage. I have a small stream running along the back edge of my yard and during the big rain of about 2 weeks ago, the dam upstream broke. I wasn't here at the time, unfortunately, but I'm sure it was quite something. Briscoe Lake is pretty much mud now, not what you'd call a lake anymore. Who knew it was so shallow? I gather the rush of water woke people up at about 2am, when this happened. Some stuff I had stored behind my tractor shed ended up a few hundred yards away, stuck in the treeline between my yard and my neighbor, and I now have a few thousand rocks in the yard that used to be on the streambed. Also, my large burn pile is gone. Not a twig left behind. So much for needing to burn this year. A couple trees came down, too. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of flowers as well. I had daffodils and irises along the stream bank, but that part of the bank is gone and the stream is a bit wider. Luckily my house sits just a few feet above the high water point and escaped any damage.

2947. thoughtful - 4/18/2005 2:07:44 PM

Wow! That's something! Thank goodness your house wasn't damaged. But man what a mess.

2948. wabbit - 4/18/2005 2:41:10 PM

It's pretty impressive, so long as you don't have to clear the mud, stones and debris out of your yard. A couple rowboats ended up far from home, along with one dock that came loose and is now next to the street. We were lucky.

The man who built the dam years ago doesn't even live on the "lake", so is unlikely to rebuild it, but the people with lakefront property will probably chip in to get it done.

Meanwhile, there is talk about cutting the tops of some of the bigger stumps down so they won't snag on boats when the lake is resurrected. So long as they don't screw up the fishing, they'll do it while the lake is gone. I wish they'd do some dredging, I could use the topsoil!

2949. thoughtful - 4/18/2005 2:54:04 PM

If it were our area, it'd be unlikely to be redone, certainly any time soon. Our area is heavy duty into wetlands and anything like even raking your own leaves into your own backyard if it's a wetlands area can yield threats of arrests and fines.

2950. wabbit - 4/18/2005 3:02:16 PM

We have the same thing here, but the lake was created before those regulations were established, so rebuilding the dam would probably be grandfathered.

I don't understand some of the wetlands enforcement. Up the street from my parents is a little house with a corner lot that they can't sell because the land next to the house, on the corner and with roadways on two sides, is considered wetlands. It is wet land, for sure, but what is the point in not allowing these people to clear some of the trees off of what can't be even 1/4 acre with 1" of water in some places? There aren't any exotic flowers or creatures living there, the place has been checked. It pretty much dries up in the summer anyway; what make that yard 'wetlands' is beyond me.

2951. jayackroyd - 4/18/2005 3:38:21 PM

Peregrine web cam

2952. ronski - 4/18/2005 6:07:08 PM

That sure is a lot of muck up there.

I think it's time for a blue hyacinth:

2953. ronski - 4/18/2005 9:26:30 PM

Again, at my Mom's, Louise de Colligny daffodils. An early pink variety, once called the "orchid of daffodils," fragrant, and, sadly, no longer available in the trade.


2954. alistairConnor - 4/18/2005 9:37:27 PM

Our stream is high, overflowing into the field -- after a cumulative 30 cm of snow over the weekend, and heavy rain today.

We'll get some alluvial sand and stones in the paddock, for free.

Today the farrier was scheduled to come, at 6PM or so, to tend to the pony with the foot condition. I went to get the ponies after work, I was worried about how I was going to get them to cross the stream. I needn't have worried, they had broken out. Electric fence shorts out completely in this weather, it didn't take them long to work that out.

OK, so we went half a mile up the road to where they usually hang out when they're on the lam -- friends have five ponies. Sure enough, they have been corralled there. We halter them and start plodding home, and the farrier drives past. We flag him down, and he does the hooves in the barn at the friends' place, it's a much better location for it, especially considering the rain.

After which, they invite us to stay for dinner, and inevitable discussion of the European constitution. The ponies also get a free night in a dry stall. That gives me tomorrow evening to think up some more convincing fencing.

2955. ronski - 4/18/2005 9:39:54 PM

Flowers on the red maple (Acer rubrum; or swamp maple) trees, near my Mom's. By us, only some slight budding. The latest I've seen them flower in years. It's as if they still can't shake off the chill of March.


2956. Magoseph - 4/20/2005 11:37:32 PM

From Sweden:


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