I don’t know who wrote that poem, but I think it has been around a very long time.
Also, I should mention that these photos are from six years ago and are not a true reflection of the weather here today.
I look forward to springtime when I can try once again to have a good garden.
Vegetables never taste as good as when they are fresh from the garden.
Meanwhile, the varied thrush is singing “Merry Christmas” to you while you wait for spring.
This fungus is called phaeolus schweinitzii, or more commonly, Dyer’s polybore. It is also called velvet-top fungus, or pine dye polybore, or Polly, as I call it.
In my yard, it seems to come back every year in this same location, near the roots of a large fir tree that was felled several decades ago, and usually Polly has a “baby” nearby. It’s not a good fungus to have near your trees, as it will rot the roots and do a lot of damage to the tree.
The redeeming quality about Polly is that this fungus was used for making a dye to colour wool or other materials, hence the name Dyer’s polybore.
But definitely, do not try to eat it. Polly will make you very sick.
You can see the size of the fungus by comparing it to the fir cones nearby.
The photo above was taken a few days ago, but the ones below were taken last year in the same location. I thought it was interesting that it grew around blades of grass – or maybe the grass grew through the fungus. I’m not sure what the process was.
Last year, just like this year, a baby polybore was growing nearby.
Notice that the baby Polly in each case looks like its mother.
I wonder if Polly will show up again next fall.
I don’t know if the full moon on March 25th had anything to do with spring arriving.
I don’t know if the rain had anything to do with it either.
But perhaps they helped the daffodils bloom as they told me spring was here and it was time to send Easter greetings.
The picture of the clouds reminded me of my mother pointing out to me, when I was a child, that when you see the clouds sweeping down to Earth the way they are in the middle photo, that meant that it was raining over there where the cloud was. I was amazed at how she could know that, especially when, at that time, I still thought that when it rained, it rained everywhere.
The daffodils also reminded me of my mother because, when she was still struggling to learn English when we came to Canada when I was six years old, she could never get the word “daffodils” right. She always called them “daffy dolls,” and in my mind, I still call them that and think of her.
Happy Easter to all my blogging friends, and happy spring!
I thought we had escaped the grip of winter by now, but then, this morning, yuck!
March certainly came in like a lion here with a bitter cold wind and then a dump of snow. I’m counting on it to go out like a lamb, hopefully with mild springtime temperatures.
I did some digging and found out that some people think the proverb about March is not so much about weather as it is about the stars.
At the beginning of March, the constellation Leo rises in the eastern sky. Then at the end of March, the constellation Aries (the ram, or perhaps the lamb in its younger days) sets in the west.
Whether it is weather related or has to do with the stars, it’s often safe to assume the weather is better towards the end of March.
Just for fun, here is a timely Knock, Knock joke that you all know.
Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Marshall.
Marshall who?
Marshall come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.
Photo by Pat Gerrie
I apologize for the background noise of dogs barking and garbage trucks backing up somewhere in the world outside my own little world.
wordsfromanneli 