Winter Comes Fast

Welcome to Meterological Winter.  Notice the 'logical' in the word that doesn't seem fair - we didn't want this much winter so soon.  Meteorologists and climatologists start winter on December 1st.  They want consistency - they don't want a season that varies between 88 and 94 days.  That's a lot of extra work to make things comparable.  Meterological seasons have been tracked since the late 1700s.  The term for measuring the winter season is "meteorological reckoning".   And what happened in Niagara on our first day of winter?  We had rain, that formed ice, followed by power outages, and snow.  With scattered flurries predicted today, we could have more power lines felled from trees, and more power outages.   So I guess the start of winter this year has begun to fulfill the prediction of the Polar Coaster.  As I looked through the news articles, an expression caught my attention:  "the highway looked like a skating rink".  That seems to me to be particularly Canadian.  Other expressions we can expect in winter:  cold snap, snowed under.  And last year's term was "bombogenesis" - a powerful nor-easter affecting the East Coast that brought heavy snow to the Canadian Maritimes.  And there is a soft snowflake that looks more like sleet than snow - it is called "graupel".   I found The Outdoor Swimming Society website and they have 35 ways to say it's cold.  There are words in the list such as brumal and hiemal. Do you remember the expression snug as a bug?  I brought a wreath inside from the front door yesterday.  I wanted to put some decorations on it, and a fly few out of it, and then a walnut dropped off of it.  It seems the fly was no longer snug and the squirrel's secret stash is now gone. I took this picture of Robert Walhout, Grimsby Rotarian and actor.  He was in the Lamplighter Play this year, in the role of the School System Superintendent.  He came costume to the Fantasy of Trees Celebration evening.

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Submitted for your approval - June is a Summer Month

June is astrologically in spring, and meteorologically in summer.  Perhaps gardeners are in the meteorological camp.  It is hard for me to consider the current garden a spring one.  Peonies, irises and lilacs all say summer to me.  The early roses are blooming.  Wisteria, laburnum, the Carolina Silverbell have finished.  This morning, I found some blossoms on my tiny Styrax - also known as Japanese Snowbell tree. I got to smell the sweet scent that they are known for. For those who watched television in the 1950's, there was a wonderful expression in Rod Serling's series The Twilight Zone.  It was: "Submitted for Your Approval".  I find out that it was only heard in three episodes.  It is a phrase that most of us associate with the series. This phrase came to my mind as I looked at my Finalist image of a tulip in the Betterphoto's April contest.   For me, a tulip embodies spring.  Having tulips in the garden in June seems out of synch with the season we're in - meteorologically early summer.  The phrase "submitted for your approval" came to mind.  It is an invitation to consider that we've arrived into summer.

When Does Spring Start?

The sun is rising on a snow-covered garden, and I find out that for the weatherman, spring starts on March 1st.  There are different definitions of spring. Meteorological spring references a standardized split up of the seasons into four, 3-month periods.  Astronomical seasons are based on the solstices and equinoxes that occur around the year. Today's pictures are the entries in the Betterphoto contest that placed for the month of January.  The first is the second place winner in the Details and Macro category.  The other two are Finalists.  View this email in your browser