Wait... what? Green-up!!
May. 3rd, 2014 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenmillionToday was green-up.
This is absurdly early. Last year, we had snow on, what, the 20th of May? This year, on the crazy date of the third, I boldly took the straw cover off my garden and found a few brave chive sprouts. I even found what looks like volunteer viola re-seeds coming up. (And some fireweed, promptly pulled.)
And did I mention, green-up?
Unlike other places in the world (normal places), spring doesn't linger around going ho-hum, unfurling a leaf here and there, sending out a sprout over there, taking its sweet time. No, we get spring like a punch in the face. One day, you're in a Doolittle forest with lots of bare birch trees and patches of snow (Indians and spotted horses optional), the next, BAM. Green, everywhere. The birch trees coordinate their schedules in strict military fashion, and set leaf-budding day based on altitude; most years, we're a day or two behind the valley, but this year, it was ALL NOW. GO GO GO GO GO. I watched the leaves come out over the course of a few hours, from the first 'holy moly, that's a green leaf!' to 'EVERYTHING IS GLORIOUSLY GREEN AND I FEEL SO ALIVE.'
And this isn't a Thing I've Made Up to sound fancy. There was an alert on my Weather Underground app. Heat record, I wondered? No, it actually is, officially, green-up today. As declared by the government, apparently.
We spent a bit of the day putting down a jute mat on a slope that had decided to wash out in a pile of glorious mud over the last week and threw out grass seed. If you told me - even a week ago - that I would putting out seed the first week of May I would have laughed at you.
This is absurdly early. Last year, we had snow on, what, the 20th of May? This year, on the crazy date of the third, I boldly took the straw cover off my garden and found a few brave chive sprouts. I even found what looks like volunteer viola re-seeds coming up. (And some fireweed, promptly pulled.)
And did I mention, green-up?
Unlike other places in the world (normal places), spring doesn't linger around going ho-hum, unfurling a leaf here and there, sending out a sprout over there, taking its sweet time. No, we get spring like a punch in the face. One day, you're in a Doolittle forest with lots of bare birch trees and patches of snow (Indians and spotted horses optional), the next, BAM. Green, everywhere. The birch trees coordinate their schedules in strict military fashion, and set leaf-budding day based on altitude; most years, we're a day or two behind the valley, but this year, it was ALL NOW. GO GO GO GO GO. I watched the leaves come out over the course of a few hours, from the first 'holy moly, that's a green leaf!' to 'EVERYTHING IS GLORIOUSLY GREEN AND I FEEL SO ALIVE.'
And this isn't a Thing I've Made Up to sound fancy. There was an alert on my Weather Underground app. Heat record, I wondered? No, it actually is, officially, green-up today. As declared by the government, apparently.
We spent a bit of the day putting down a jute mat on a slope that had decided to wash out in a pile of glorious mud over the last week and threw out grass seed. If you told me - even a week ago - that I would putting out seed the first week of May I would have laughed at you.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 04:24 pm (UTC)(Here, of course, things remain green throughout winter.)
no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 01:20 am (UTC)Ours is a lot slower, and still rolling out. I don't think I've ever watched a tree bud in real time. That sounds really neat!