Welcome to March in the upper midwest.
Mar. 13th, 2026 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennlkLast Sunday morning it was 55F and sunny. We had snowflakes Sunday evening. Now they're telling us that we will probably have snow accumulating on Sunday morning before the temperature rises to around 60F. Today it's not quite 40F and very windy with occasional bursts of precipitation. The cushion box on the deck has been blowing around, and the freestanding fire pit is now in the pond. Lots of branches down, but I'm not going to deal with them until tomorrow when it's warmer and less windy. I was going to do laundry today, but the washer does not deal well with power flickers, so I think that, too, will wait until tomorrow.
We do have crocuses and snowdrops in the doorside garden. Wednesday morning I saw that the reticulated irises in the E garden had bloomed (they were green stems on Monday am). The crocuses close up when it gets cold/rainy/snowy, so they'll be fine tomorrow. The irises, on the other hand... The ones that have not been eaten by bunnies have been shredded by the wind and rain. :( The daffodil patches in the NW garden are about 4" tall green stems, but it's another couple of weeks before they usually bloom, and right now they're very sturdy.
I saw redwinged blackbirds in the yard Wednesday morning. I'd heard them carrying on earlier in the week, but hadn't seen them on the ground/at the feeders/bathing until Wednesday.
Monday, the township hall hosted an election 'equipment certification day' for the west side of the county. (and by hosted, I mean that someone at the county said "we'd like to do Thing at this Place on Thisdate. Any objections?") I had no idea what to expect, not having done Thing before (it's periodic, and the last one was before I started at the township), so we were somewhat unprepared. (Turns out that I needed to haul folding tables in from the shed and move tables and chairs in the boardroom, as well as prepare all of our equipment.) I was able to pull a lot of things out of storage and put them into the shredding bin, so that was nice. I got the storage area more organized, as well.
We do have crocuses and snowdrops in the doorside garden. Wednesday morning I saw that the reticulated irises in the E garden had bloomed (they were green stems on Monday am). The crocuses close up when it gets cold/rainy/snowy, so they'll be fine tomorrow. The irises, on the other hand... The ones that have not been eaten by bunnies have been shredded by the wind and rain. :( The daffodil patches in the NW garden are about 4" tall green stems, but it's another couple of weeks before they usually bloom, and right now they're very sturdy.
I saw redwinged blackbirds in the yard Wednesday morning. I'd heard them carrying on earlier in the week, but hadn't seen them on the ground/at the feeders/bathing until Wednesday.
Monday, the township hall hosted an election 'equipment certification day' for the west side of the county. (and by hosted, I mean that someone at the county said "we'd like to do Thing at this Place on Thisdate. Any objections?") I had no idea what to expect, not having done Thing before (it's periodic, and the last one was before I started at the township), so we were somewhat unprepared. (Turns out that I needed to haul folding tables in from the shed and move tables and chairs in the boardroom, as well as prepare all of our equipment.) I was able to pull a lot of things out of storage and put them into the shredding bin, so that was nice. I got the storage area more organized, as well.
