There wasn’t a colorful Sunday sunrise this morning since it was cloudy and the trees were rattling with ice from the freezing rain overnight. The yard was full of robins this morning but I don’t think ice counts as snow on the robin’s tail so spring might not be here yet.
My robin is to blame for the predicted snow and sleet tonight since I keep seeing him duck under the pine tree so the snow can’t land on his tail during the brief snow showers, so apparently it has only snowed on the robin twice and not the three times for spring to truly arrive and stay. I might have to stake the robin in the middle of the yard tonight so that the snow can land on his tail and be done with winter. I guess that is why the robin is Wisconsin’s state bird because we have six or more months of winter!
The morning was a crisp 17 degrees so if there had been flowers poking up in between the snow showers, they would be rather stiff. The sun is shining this morning but no colorful flowers to brighten the landscape as in prior years, so I will have to wait a few more weeks for the daffodils and other spring flowers.
The cardinal was singing this morning so I guess he didn’t mind the return to winter but I didn’t hear or see the bluebirds or robins since I think they are wondering were spring went to. But now the robin has had snow on its tail twice so hopefully it will only snow once more and spring can stay.
Built in 1891 on the south end of Superior, Wisconsin, the Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church made several journeys. The first journey was just a move of a few blocks down in 1898 but the second move was about 120 miles south to the city of New Richmond to be part of the Heritage Center.
When the church opened, services were held in both the German and English language in the early days as the industrial center of Superior had a large German immigrant population but even before the Great Depression, many factories had closed and membership dwindled until the church closed around the 1970’s.
I couldn’t find any wildflowers yesterday to mark the start of spring but a bluebird was singing notifying me of his return from his winter vacation. So I cleaned out the bluebird houses, which meant evicting numerous squatters whom some would not vacate very easily and may take some more convincing before they decide to move on. And then there were houses where the squirrels enlarged the opening to get inside. I have plenty of hollow oak trees for the squirrels so they are wearing out their welcome by wrecking my birdhouses, eating the bird seed and peeing on my screens.
The bluebird may have headed south since a cooler morning but the cardinal is singing up a storm but I not too sure the female is listening. But I just heard a robin so now it can snow three times this week and spring will be officially here.
Three years ago, we had an early spring and some wildflowers were open on the first day of spring like the hepaticas. I haven’t spotted any yet this ‘spring’ so I will have to do a little more trekking around the woods today to see if any opened for the arrival of spring.