Psst....it's a secret...

...shh, we must be quiet, careful not to scare it away, but there might just be a sign of Spring--so shy this year, so afraid to shed her white cloak...but, I think, maybe, there must might be wee buds on the apple tree next door...!! Oops--there, it's out of the bag! Of course, there is too much snow for Lazy Gnome to do a proper investigation, but from the window there are wee little knobby things at the end of the branches....ooh, it is soooo exciting!!

Do you remember what spring looks like? What is your favourite first sign of Spring?

Also today there were swarms of Bohemian waxwings aloft in 6 elms out front, taking turns pecking at cones in the huge spruce next door--odd that the little birds look so much larger from a distance than relatively close up, leaving their red dropping-calling cards! And they were all chattering, hundreds of birds versus one squirrel chippering away! Suddenly, the chattering stopped, and with one soft "whoosh" of their wings, they all soared south, then north again, to reconvene at the peaks of another ever green down the street. But, they are hardly a sign of spring: LG saw swarms of them when she was out raking the snow off the roof in mid-January!

Until next time, LG signing off, off sign hunting! LG

How cold is it where you live?

Lazy Gnome is still alive and kicking even after all this snow and the see-saw weather...hope all you are alright, too!?

LG managed to accidentally buy a magazine that was NOT meant for Zone 3. She noticed the authors were from Western Canada so she thought, hey! that's good news! Well, she should have looked more carefully...

The cover main story is "7 Ways to Creat a Zen Retreat"; other blurbs that caught her attention on the cover included "cold-hardy conifers" and "7 design tricks for a gorgeous edible small-spaced garden". Well, LG's garden is not exatly small spaced, but any area dedicated to edibles probably will be small as LG assumes edible=lotsa work.

Unfortunately, the pieces have few outdoor applications this side of the Rockies, but some of the photos of work lucky Okanagan and Fraser Valley gardeners have undertaken are beautiful...sigh. Perhaps this magazine is part of a subliminal campaign to ensure it is every Albertan's aspiration to retire in BC...

However, there is one gem of a piece of information. It's a table that goes with last post's climate zone map. It explains that "[i]n general, the climate zone determines what will grow in your area. A simple definition is by minimum temperature." It goes on to show the "minimum" temperature for zones 0 to 9. LG understands that what they are taking about is actually the coldest general temperature in the year, and that plant life that survives in a given zone has to be able to live through these cold temperatures. LG is unsure if in some cases it means a given type of plant or shrub actually requires such cold temperatures to survive--similar to the concept that some plants' seeds require the heat of fire to germinate.

The magazine thoughtfully provides this in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit, which in LG's mind just confuses things. She also assumes this does not include the windchill factor--something we Edmontonians are VERY familiar with over the past three months....

Here is part of the chart--Centigrade only:
Zone 0: below -45C [yikes!]
Zone 1: - 45C
Zone 2: -45C to -40C
Zone 3: -40C to -35C....this is us.
Zone 4: -35C to -29C
Zone 5: -29C to -23C
Zone 6: -23C to -18C
Zone 7: -18C to -12C
Zone 8: -12C to -7C
Zone 9: -7 to -1C

LG has been particularly attentive to temperatures due to the necessity of walking to the busstop and the potential of waiting there for what might be an indeterminate period of time. She is well aware that the windchill factor has gone far below -30, but the actual "base" temperature she believes has maybe once or twice this winter dipped below that...when your face is freezing it makes no difference what makes it so cold. But who knows what requirements Mother Nature has for plants insulated by a snow pack the Rockies would envy.

Anyway, as LG writes, she is happy to see that she and her fellow citizens have survived yet another week of topsy-turvy weather, and wonders what the next five days have in store!

Hang in there, fellow travellers....we will arrive at Spring, um, sometime before Fall!?