This picture was taken 3 weeks ago today on April 19th
{{gwi:256697}}
I just took this while I am on break....cooling off.
Hard to believe there is only 3 weeks to the day between the first picture and the second one, isn't it? As you can see we haven't gotten the fountain pan uncovered and the fountain set up yet.
{{gwi:677864}}

WOW! The weather is so crazy this year! I'm ready to put a parka on..brrr. I sure LOVE the brick pathways you have and also that fence, what a lovely yard!

Sounds like it's too hot to work outside, mary lu. I can't handle heat anymore either. At least there's lots of moisture in your soil right now, and by mulching you helped trap some of that.

Take it easy.

Bet your plants are baffled by Ma Natures mood swings. Just love your shed and pathways Mary Lu!

Couple weeks ago we had a few snowflakes!! Fairly unusual here for the time of year. Past couple of days have been sunny and warm though- right now 68 or so. The weather has been so strange that I don't trust it to stay warm enough to plant the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants out. Better safe than sorry though...
CMK

I love your arbor/swing. Did your DH build that too? Do you have some sort of little "window" in the sides of the arbor? You put such nice little touches on everything. I still can't believe he built your picket fence out front from scratch. It is so beautiful. Can I borrow him for a couple weeks?!?! LOL!

We've had very decent weather here at this point. Bit of a long winter but NE is usually like that. We've had a nice mix of rain and sun so the gardens are feeling good right about now.

calamity j, for some reason a parka just does not sound right to me, today! :-)

schoolhouse, thanks for your concern. I did take lots of breaks and drank plenty of fluids. But I must admit I am exhausted. Will be heading for bed in minutes.

CMK, I know what you mean. I usually have some of my pots planted about now. But not doing that yet. The weather has just been too unpredictable. Late last week I had to scrape frost off the car windows in the morning.

thyme2dig, yes DH built the arbor too! And yes there are windows of a sort in it. I will look for a picture and post it, but probably not until tomorrow night. Just too tired tonight. :-)

I did get all of the mulch spread and got the lawn cut. But I did not get the strawberries planted. They will just have to wait until tomorrow night. It is supposed to be somewhat cooler tomorrow, only low 80's. But then today was only supposed to be mid-80's. So it is anybody's guess what it will actually be!

Geez, what a bunch of crazy weather. Your two pictures look like they should be months apart.

Oooh, I understand as we had 87 degrees with high humidity today. Water poured out of my gloves when I took them off. No lemonade but lots of water and frequent breaks. The closed garage was the coolest spot, what a relief to walk in there. Though I enjoyed the warmth I had a momentary yearning for the sixty degree days of last week. Too wet as well as hot to do any planting or digging as we had rain last night.

Sirens sent me to the cool basement this evening where I watched storm information on the TV. DH was at a meeting in the midst of one of the tornado watches and hail. We didn't get any rain or hail here at our home as we were in between the two tornado systems, one stayed north and west the other stayed south and east.

Will make some lemonade for tomorrow, another hot humid day expected.

Welcome to the new world! Climate change is going to continue keeping everything wackadoodle. It's now so hot and humid here I manged one hour in the garden this AM, two last night.
I was wearing a jacket last week, and long pants.
I just checked the weather. Long pants and a jacket again next week.
Figures.

Actually it's called the EL Nina phenomenon. A weather displacement pattern. We had last year experienced the El Nino Phenomenon -- and we would have experienced some warming in areas not normally used to warm climates. That is usually followed by El Nina which brings on volatile weather - since heat+cold = storms, tornados, etc.. We have to prepare and anticipate these things. This does not mean to discount the climate change - a pattern that is also cyclical but for every 10,000 - 15,000 years.

Anyway, I hate to break the news, but summer is supposed to be very hot. So plant wisely.

We set heat records for April ... typically our most pleasant spring month. Have already hit the 90s with high humidity. I'm losing most of my new tomato flowers to the heat. I hate summer in the deep south!!!

Hot, heat, what's that? we've only had one day so far over 60 degrees F, most days it's around 50 or lower and raining. March was the pitts, so was April and it looks like May's going to be a wash too. Weird weather, you bet your boots, right now it feels like we're going to slip out of winter right into winter. If summer does arrive it's going to knock our socks off if we don't have some gradual warming first. Maybe after 2012 when all the planets do their thing we'll start getting some normal weather.

Annette

thyme2dig, I found a couple pictures of the arbor for you.
{{gwi:275321}}
close up of what the "windows" look like.
{{gwi:677866}}

mnwsgal, glad you were between the systems. I just checked radar and it looks like storms are popping up all over now. Could be a bad evening all over the area. We got up to 89 today, but this afternoon the humidity did start to drop a little, so not quite so bad. I need to get out and plant those 100 strawberry plants before it rains!

GGG, that it what our forecast sounds like too. The weekend is only supposed to be in the upper 50's. Crazy!

ianna and natal, yes it does sound like we will all have a hot summer. Or at the very least a summer of very erratic temps. Sure glad we put AC in our house several years ago.

Annette, your spring sounds like what ours had been, up until this week that is. It has been exceptionally cold (DH says cool). I was burning our pellet stove yet this past weekend!
{{gwi:677868}}

Mary Lu, thank you for the close-up pictures! Is that some sort of iron or metal decoration? There are so many objects in your garden that I hope to emulate once I get my English garden going someday (probably a few years off still). I did plant a daylily border against our split-rail fence after I saw your daylily borders (although that picket fence of yours blows away any fence I've seen). I think I'm going to start a Mary Lu fan club!! LOL!!

We shut our pellet stove off a week or so ago and have been warm enough so far. I love having a pellet stove going in the winter. I don't know about yours, but the front/top of ours (direct insert into our fireplace) does not get too hot so there are some cold winter days when I practically sit on top of it! I hate being cold so that stove has really helped me survive winters in NH.

Annette, I hope your spring starts shaping up soon. That is such a bummer. I would have never thought in Z8 you would be having weather like that.

I do hope everyone in severe stormy areas stay safe and sound.

We have an airtight insert in our fireplace which we burn all fall and winter AND it looks like it will be on all spring too. Come end of march most years we don't need any heat on in the house either from the fireplace or the furnace, not so this year.

Annette

Gotta love those fires in the fall, winter and spring! They make the house so much more comfy.

thymetodig, my "spot" is right in front of the stove. We always joke that I am "toasting my buns"! :-) If you ever have any questions, I will be happy to try to answer them. Yes, the windows are cast iron. They were framed when we purchased them at a flea market. At the time we had no idea how or where we were going to use them. Then when we were building the arbor, DH asked if I would like to incorporate them? So that's how it came about. Most of our projects work like that. Plan as we go.

Annette, keep warm and hopefully your weather will warm up!

Love the brick-work!

" EL Nina phenomenon. A weather displacement pattern. We had last year experienced the El Nino Phenomenon -- and we would have experienced some warming in areas not normally used to warm climates"

Really? Why don't the weather people say this? Now there's a week of heavy rain here predicted... ugh!

Mary Lu, beautiful garden and arbor - the windows are a wonderful feature!

Our spring is sooo slow coming. Yesterday I was out for a few hours then later thought I'd get more done but it was only 52 with a cold wind so I came right back in. It was either that or put on a heavier jacket! Have had the wood stove on except for a couple of days.

We've had quite a bit of rain which I'm not complaining about but would like some heat soon. I'm sure that all of a sudden it will be hot and dry - then I'll be watering constantly like the last 2 summers.