I’m sure all of us Upstater’s can attest to the fact that our Spring to Fall Season’s 2006 have been most unusual! This past week my wife and I had to travel to Binghamton as a dear friend had passed away. We left Tuesday morning as the rain was falling. As we got to the higher elevations on 81S at Lafayette the wind really picked up and all the way to just beyond Marathon it was relentless. It was like flying in an airplane with the strong wind buffeting and pushing the car in a back and forth motion, plus eventually making my eyes sore as the driving rain pelted the windshield.

I’d have to admit with all of the driving we’ve done over these past 44 years to and from the Southern Tier we never experienced the likes of these conditions and having it last for so long. I made mention to my wife that it was to bad the weather wasn’t nicer as you could see on occasion that the leaves seemed to be at there peak.

The reason I mentioned this, on the way back Wednesday the weather was better and as we got closer to Cortland you could see a few breaks in the clouds. The sad part was, the beautiful foliage that was fully exposed to the onslaught of wind and rain were completely gone in just a little over 24 hours.

But the real reason I’m writing a few weeks ago while walking the Old Erie Canal I saw a "Wooly Bear". That doesn’t sound so unusual does it? But the fact is, it has been the only Wooly I’ve seen this year. What made it more unusual was as I picked the 2" long creature up for a further look, 1/3rd from its head was black and the rest of its body was brown without a trace of black at the tail.

Usually by this time of the year I’ve seen dozens from around our home to the many that cross the open County and less traveled roads that you sometimes can’t miss running over for safety’s sake. Everyone of those thousands I’ve come across always had black heads/brown bodies/black tails.

We all know the devastation Buffalo experienced last week. We were personally kept well informed as we have a Granddaughter at Canisius College. Now the Watertown area gets belted with heavy wet snow yesterday.

I know that Penny had a Hummer in her backyard this week and that in itself is amazing, but the question is, what experiences might you have had that would make you think a really hard start for winter and then a less harsh at the end as my lone "Wooly Bear" has predicated?

Have a great Day! And it was truly sad to hear that so many have been inconvinced for so long by our strange weather phenomena of the past few weeks. It reminded me of a time when we were without power for over a week back in the 70's because of a March freezing rain storm. Thank God we had a fireplace and a gas stove for cooking in order to get through. And the fact we could put our food from the freezer out doors under piles of snow and ice sure did make it easier.

Jim

Last night I was one of the chaperones for a brownie troop that was sleeping over at the Niagara Falls Aquarium. During one of the talks about the seals that are housed in an outdoor pool year round, we were told that in years where the winters are early and severe the seals start increasing their caloric intake early in order to put on lots of weight for the winter. So far they have yet to put on the extra weight which we were told is usually considered a sign of a milder winter. The guide told us that the seals have been more accurate than the meteorologists at predicting our winters.

Penny

For those who haven't seen them, here's a photo I took this morning.

I watch the squirrels and the trees. OK, when I still had trees I watched the trees.

The squirrels were really lax about burying things this year, and didn't even start at my house until after the snowfall. In fact, they didn't even go after my bird seed until about three weeks ago, and aren't going ga-ga over it even though there are peanuts in it.

The maple trees were loaded with seeds, which tends to mean to me that it's a mild winter and they will try to reproduce like crazy. Heavy winters they have had fewer seeds.

I haven't seen the wooly bears around my house. I also haven't seen hummers lately, but I am not all that far from Penny. I haven't had a feeder up this year, but I still have some plants that they are supposed to love that are blooming -- salvia, coral honeysuckle, impatiens. I have cut nothing back, no time yet with the branches. They are welcome to come and take whatever sustenance they can get.

Penny