It’s been raining off and on for the past week, and we have rain forecast for the next ten days, right up through commencement, and the trees have started vomiting up leaves.
You’ll notice even our bedraggled lawn is turning green.
Spring won’t actually be here until the grass spiders start putting up tents all over the yard. I’ve been watching a couple of places where I know Theridion always lurks, and have been seeing traces of silk; we also found a Parasteatoda building a cobweb in our compost bin. Once classes are over, it’ll be time to get down in the weeds and see who else is emerging.
The bastards have also started spewing out pollen way earlier than usual. Blurgh.
Shouldn’t Spiders have Queens generally speaking? That sex being the larger and more dominant one – sometimes very dramatically so – if memory / vague impression serves? Spider.. Queendom?
@1. Rob Grigjanis : Wait, the trees have stomachs now? To digest their own leaves but their own leaves are making them sick & reguritate themselves? Not sure the word “vomiting” quite applies here somehow! Though the implications presumably being them making their own fertiliser are kinda intresting for the, er, soil..
The trees are using fungi as internediaries in their self-consumption of old leafs.
This symbiosis also helps provide the trees with more water, at least I think so as loss of mykorrhiza (due to more acid groundwater) is associated with trees more likely to getting harmed or killed by drought.
This evening people in Sweden will make traditional bonfires, burning up dead branches and other garden waste.
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At universities, student choirs will be attending bobfires and sing to mark the arrival of spring.
In towns communal bonfires will be provided and the kids will be roasting sausages over the fire and make improvised hot dogs.
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Here in Umeå, the remaining snow is rapidly retreating and green shoots are turning up in protected spots.
Tomorrow the temperature will jump up to + 13°C and I expect a quick transition to full springtime.
Spring? It already feels like summer in MD. High 80s weather all week.
We could really badly do with some rain here where I am. (Adelade hills South Oz.) The Bush is so dry, grass still very yellow, creeks and dams so low and gardens need watering still. It often gets quite rainy here after Anzac Day (25th April) but not so much this year. Had cloud and cooler temperatures but no precipitation or at least only very little with the occassional drizzle or breif shower. No rain forecast for this coming week either and a drier and warmer Autumn than usual predicted.
I’m glad to hear it’s springing somewhere. The weather here has been a bit windy, but nice enough that I was able to go for a bike ride last week (although I had to take shelter at a nearby hotel for a passing rainstorm). The wind is blowing like crazy today and we’ve got snow in the forecast, but that’s April in southeast Wyoming.
Urg, those are the evil maple flowers that are currently making my life miserable with seasonal allergies. It’s always lovely when the rain comes and suddenly the world turns lush and green again, but I could do without the itchy eyes, nose, and throat.
@ ^ Tethys : Well, Ithink its your immune system being “evil” there more than the leaves being leaves but sympathies.
Ivy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera species) gets me and that really sucks especially when you have to get rid of it from gardens for work..
^ By “gets me” there, I mean makes me cough and my nose & eyes run and generally makes me feel awful. Something it produces – dust and sap it gives off / exudes when cut or pulled out or crushed – makes me suffer pretty badly. Plus its an awfully destructive invasive weed too.
Plants in general are bloody good at chemical warfare.
It was 93 yesterday, and supposed to be 91 today, so I think Maryland skipped spring entirely…
@stevoR
Those aren’t leaves, they’re flowers. It’s definitely the pollen that’s causing my eyes to itch. Ivy doesn’t grow here in the north, but I’ve pulled so much quack grass in my life that I’ve sensitized myself, and develop contact dermatitis if I touch the roots. I don’t like wearing gloves to weed, but I dislike itching much more.
Thanks for the sympathy in any case. Hooray for Claritin.
I had several hay fever free years and thought I’d grown out of it (in my sixties!), but the allergies are back with a vengeance this year. The one thing that is better than when I had it before, is that I now have to use eye drops regularly because one of the medicines I’m on dries out your mucus membranes, and the eye drops several times a day do a pretty good job of keeping my eyes from getting too itchy.