Day 80 - 20th March 2012 - It's Spring!

The temperature is +1.5 this morning, and it promises to be another warm day. My sleeping is getting worse instead of better, [3:30am]. This just sucks! I hate not getting 7-8 hours of sleep. My days of burning the candle at both ends and surviving on 2-3 hours of sleep were long over 30 years ago.

Yesterday was another beautiful day, it was +14 here in the afternoon. Larry spent all day working on his wood shed - 4 walls, 2 doorways and part of the floor are now done. Needless to say fine days keep him outside instead of my kitchen but......... sure we will get a day or two yet that he can finish that up for me. I spent most of the day inside doing paper work - yuk! Did get out for a walk, had tea and chatter with Lois. Today is not looking any better, need to do some catch up from the time I lost last week, but this morning I'm planning a few hours in the pantry to do some baking.

The Old Farmer's Almanac says the following about the 1st day of Spring:

The Vernal Equinox  -  Ah, spring! This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna. 

The word equinox is derived from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” The spring and fall equinoxes are the only dates with equal daylight and dark as the Sun crosses the celestial equator. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (However, the tilt of Earth relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic plane, is always about 23.5 degrees.)

On the first day of spring—the vernal equinox—day and night are each approximately 12 hours long (with the actual time of equal day and night, in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring a few days before the vernal equinox). The Sun crosses the celestial equator going northward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west.

Some of my crocus' are finally coming through, they are rather small but I've had them for a long time.

 

I think these are some of the ones I planted last fall, truthfully I'm not sure where I planted them all but I see lots coming here and there - daffodils, tulips, etc. Now Mr & Mrs Deer please leave them alone, you have lots of apples that I let you eat from the trees all fall long! I know they aren't fond of daffodils, but I think tulips are quite tasty so.......

After the appearance of blooms on my Daphne in January I was worried whether it would bloom as it should, but voila .......buds and flowers are awakening in the warm spring sun!

Must get some stuff underway before I burn and crash. Have promised Karen some Water St. reading this morning, so will start that now.

Enjoy your day!