Spring has sprung, or squished, in...
I heard a mockingbird singing in our not-quite-leafed-out walnut tree the other day. Mockingbird song, in this part of the country, is one of the really dependable signs that "spring" has arrived. After all, we don't have snow to start melting (and yes, I do wish that for most of my East-of-here friends!) just plants that start to bloom their little hearts out.
Thing is, California is in the middle of a horrendous drought. We made it through January and Februaray, our normally wettest months, without much more than a couple of drizzles. The hills at the start of March were grey-brown and lifeless, not the normal emerald green. Our reservoir lakes are 100s of feet below capacity, if not almost bone-dry in some places. There was no snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains this year - satellite images confirm this.
So the rain that started up about two weeks ago, eased off for about a week, and now have started up again are most welcome! Plants that I thought had croaked are showing signs of life again, including my newest iris on the NW corner of the house that I put in last year. I'd really despaired of that one, but nice, shiny new green leaves are sticking up over eight inches out of the soil now. Of course, the other irises are over 12 in tall, but then, I'm taking my little yellow's survival as a success story. Even if it doesn't bloom this year, I can now look forward to seeing them in future. I need to get another bulb of yet another color than blue, purple & yellow to slip into the empty spot - maybe a nice pink or a bit of the pale blue that is older than dirt elsewhere on the property.
But back to the mockingbird. I tend to see our seasons through the songs of the birds outside my door/window. Autumn brings the crows/ravens to devour our ripened walnuts, picking them up in their beaks and carrying them to the tops of telephone poles from which they drop them onto the pavement of the street to crack. Or else they just wait for passing cars to squish them and then dance out to pick through the mess left behind. Summer has blue jays begging for cat kibbles at my back door. Spoiled little buggers got used to us feeding an outdoor cat, and now they want us to keep the food coming! They are entertaining, though, as they train their young in how to "sneak" up on the Scary Humans and "steal" some of those nummy crunchies.
But mockingbirds are the sign of Spring. My father, bless his little mischievous hide, used to open a window at about 11PM and give a few wolf-whistles just to set off Mr. Mockingbird in the walnut tree - who would then sing his heart out for hours afterwards. I laughed when the songs began to include the sound of cell phone ringtones - it can be downright hilarious what those little maestros include in their repertoire: sparrowsong, crow-calls, cell phone tones, even dog barks (I kid you not!)
So I guess Spring is coming at last, drenched in the latest downpours (and it did pour yesterday, and today is supposed to give us at least a 1/4 of an inch.)
It's about time!
Thing is, California is in the middle of a horrendous drought. We made it through January and Februaray, our normally wettest months, without much more than a couple of drizzles. The hills at the start of March were grey-brown and lifeless, not the normal emerald green. Our reservoir lakes are 100s of feet below capacity, if not almost bone-dry in some places. There was no snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains this year - satellite images confirm this.
So the rain that started up about two weeks ago, eased off for about a week, and now have started up again are most welcome! Plants that I thought had croaked are showing signs of life again, including my newest iris on the NW corner of the house that I put in last year. I'd really despaired of that one, but nice, shiny new green leaves are sticking up over eight inches out of the soil now. Of course, the other irises are over 12 in tall, but then, I'm taking my little yellow's survival as a success story. Even if it doesn't bloom this year, I can now look forward to seeing them in future. I need to get another bulb of yet another color than blue, purple & yellow to slip into the empty spot - maybe a nice pink or a bit of the pale blue that is older than dirt elsewhere on the property.
But back to the mockingbird. I tend to see our seasons through the songs of the birds outside my door/window. Autumn brings the crows/ravens to devour our ripened walnuts, picking them up in their beaks and carrying them to the tops of telephone poles from which they drop them onto the pavement of the street to crack. Or else they just wait for passing cars to squish them and then dance out to pick through the mess left behind. Summer has blue jays begging for cat kibbles at my back door. Spoiled little buggers got used to us feeding an outdoor cat, and now they want us to keep the food coming! They are entertaining, though, as they train their young in how to "sneak" up on the Scary Humans and "steal" some of those nummy crunchies.
But mockingbirds are the sign of Spring. My father, bless his little mischievous hide, used to open a window at about 11PM and give a few wolf-whistles just to set off Mr. Mockingbird in the walnut tree - who would then sing his heart out for hours afterwards. I laughed when the songs began to include the sound of cell phone ringtones - it can be downright hilarious what those little maestros include in their repertoire: sparrowsong, crow-calls, cell phone tones, even dog barks (I kid you not!)
So I guess Spring is coming at last, drenched in the latest downpours (and it did pour yesterday, and today is supposed to give us at least a 1/4 of an inch.)
It's about time!