Sunday, April 01, 2007

April Showers


We don't need no stinkin' cherry blossoms. We have redbuds.


Hard to believe things are blooming so nicely with the ground this dry.


Crabapple, I think.


The downside of the season. (Pollen on car.)

We had a miniscule amount of rain last night -- just enough to make the drippy noise on the front porch sound exactly like a cat trying to evict a hairball. Over and over and over. Ugh.

I imagine lots of other people had the same joke played on them that we did this morning... Our "smart" clocks sprang forward again all by themselves.

Growing up, we rarely played any pranks on the first day of April. There was something bigger going on: it was anniversary day! (A.k.a. going out to eat day!) My friends always thought it odd that my parents had married on April 1. I guess they all imagined, "I do... April Fools!" My sister must have seen the appeal though, because she got married on the same day. (Anniversaries less likely to be forgotten if they fall on a holiday?)

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Roger at Words and Pictures has hosted a wonderful edition of the Festival of the Trees. Go visit!




If you like nature, you'll love Tom's blog from New York's Allegany State Park area, Mon@rch's Nature Blog. I love this photo from his Salamander migration report. Make sure to watch the videos too!

13 comments:

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener) said...

The salamander is smiling!

And redbuds are one of my favorite native trees.

autumn said...

What a great salamander photo!Thanks for your comment on my smoking post. I'm new to this and curious how you cam across it. Does it come up in a search for something?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Pollen! We're knee deep in it here in Atlanta. I've never seen so much pollen. Redbuds are wonderful- i love the way the flowers seem to just pop out of the branches, before the leaves. I hope you'll send a photo over for Good Planets when the time comes. (I hate having a party where nobody comes...)

St. Petersburg is having Indy car racing this weekend- the Snarl has a dorm room window right over the grandstand. :-) We're missing it for squeak,squeak,squeak....

We used to have the largest salamander migration in southeastern michigan right behind Wit's End- it was the best week or two of the year to go for night walk in the woods.

Bobby D. said...

pretty shots, nice car/pollen shot. I just discovered you, and must go read some of your older posts!

Cathy said...

Waaaiiit a minute. Raindrops on the porch roof sounding like a cat hacking up a fur ball? That's some imagery, but I can't quite hear it.

I'm with you totally on the Redbuds, though. Unfortunately, they're not very long-lived and our old one is on it's last lovely leg.

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks so much for directing people over to my Salamander Post!! I really appreciate it and I also hate finding pollen on the car! LOL! Happy April 1st!

Unknown said...

If only redbuds put out edible fruit... because you're right, the cherries have nothing on the redbuds flower-wise!

I can't believe all of the pollen on that car. I sneezed in sympathy. :(

Ki said...

The redbuds are nice. I've never seen a spiky flowered crab before.

Silvia Hoefnagels . Salix Tree said...

What lovely flowering trees! I've never heard of redbud, I must look it up, it's got some pretty flowers.

KFarmer said...

For some reason, my little redbud is just now getting her leaves and has not bloomed yet- am waiting :)

Loved the pic of the salamander :)

We got some rain, but not near enough to wash the yellow dust off anything. Hope we get some soon, but I don't think it's in the forecast- dang it.

R.Powers said...

We are dry here too.
I'm happy to say, I don't know the sound of a cat hacking up a hairball and it's not on my list of "sounds to hear before I die".

The salamander shot is wonderful.

I, for one, would not dream of pulling an April Fool's prank.
Nope, not me.

Rachel said...

Redbuds are so pretty!!

Wonderful pictures. That is really some dry ground, with such huge cracks! Hope you get some rain soon.

Rurality said...

Thanks everybody.

Xris, geckos are like that too. Head shots always look like they're amused at something.

Autumn, I think I followed your comment on someone else's blog. Glad I did!

Vicki I think we're setting records for pollen. Some guy was on tv showing a machine. "The normal high reading is 120," he said. "Today it was at 5300." Eep. I imagine the Snarl would have a hard time studying with all that noise. I used to have a room very near the football stadium at Alabama -- could only see parts of the crowd though, not the games. Oh we went to the Indy race in Nashville a few years back and really enjoyed it.

Thanks DCB! We had to take a hose to the car before we could see to drive. :)

Cathy, it was the dripping from the roof onto the wood of the porch that made the noise. It was very strange! Yeah the redbuds are short-lived, but beautiful while they last.

Thanks Tom, sorry I had the link wrong at first.

BSG, I have read that the flowers are edible, but I haven't used them in salads so far. My hubby is scared to death that I'm going to poison him with some woodsy bounty someday.

Ki I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it does have some thorns. I'll try to get a pic of the fruit later on.

Salix, this is the color of most of them but we have a couple that are slightly lighter, and I've seen one that's totally white. They line the highways because they love "edge", and this time of year it's just gorgeous to see them all in bloom.

KF that's strange, ours always finish blooming before getting leaves. We got a lousy 1/8 inch of rain after they'd predicted a deluge!

FC, I totally believe you. Got any land in FL you want to sell me? Oh wait...

Rachel, I'd never seen the ground crack so much. It was strange.