BlizzardNole

Sun is blazing here right now. I'd like mostly cloudy today to keep the temps reasonable.

I have gotten to really hate maples. I planted three "Autumn Blaze" in our back yard in 2002 since our back deck faces the broiling WSW. I read they were medium sized and don't seed. WRONG. They are 40-50 feet and make billions of spinners. They are so covered with them now that they look like late November brownish foliage. Ugly. Probably won't be leafed out for four more weeks. I'm surprised my neighbors haven't complained.

Nice soaking rain at 0.6 and as someone said, perfect timing! We're going to Calvert to visit my parents today so I am glad the rain wasn't 12 hours later.

Nasty day at 46 degrees and rushing wind. Watch us approach 90 next Wednesday Oh and trees -- we have three maples in the back with billions of spinners, and a gigantic thornless honeylocust street tree that someone thought was a good idea with a front yard that's less than 20 feet wide. That thing will soon drop tons of tiny flowering junk that accumulates everywhere and turns into a mud-like mess when it rains. Then in fall it's billions of tiny leaves get everywhere and into everything. Wish I addressed it when we first moved in and it was small, and made it look like an "accident."

No kidding it has been great! Now up to 15 straight days of 60-plus for highs at DCA, and 26 out of the last 29 going back into March. Best spring I can remember in a long time.

Here is one of my gaskets to stop leaks and keep them wasps away

You also need a good ant moat. I got this glass one of Etsy that works really well. This feeder is on a hook right outside my window. Sometimes yellow finches will drink out of that ant moat!

C'mon over to the lawn/garden thread. Cool and wet at 55. Broke the string of 60s-plus

@FXW176 Here is the hummingbird feeder I like to use (sorry so big -- can't figure out how to shrink the image). I like the square one -- it glows red when the sun shines through it. Make nectar using 4 parts water to one part white cane sugar. Do not add coloring or anything else. This feeder does well with about 12 oz. in it. One thing -- they do tend to leak where the bottom fits together. I make gaskets out of thin foam sheets from a craft store (or Amazon) using the metal piece as a template. I use an exacto type knife and make the gaskets about 1/4". When you put the halves together, it stops any leaks. Please, please change feeders regularly if you put them up! I see people leave them out for two weeks and the nectar gets gross. That can harm or kill a hummingbird. 12 oz can go 5-7 days in cool weather like now, especially in the shade. In hot summer weather, change no more than every 3 days. I keep 2 up and rotate 2 more through so I can let them get clean and dry.

Ha that was funny H2O! It will be interesting how it goes in our neighborhood. In 2004, the large development was relatively new with the houses built between 1994 and 1998. Most trees were pretty small, but there are woods on the edges and MAN it was loud coming from there. Now 17 years later we are getting a canopy. We'll see how many laid eggs on those smaller trees back then. On another note -- anyone get those annoying annual cicadas each year? The past couple of summers just a few of those darn things have made it unpleasant to sit on the deck. Damn things screech all day.

Here is a lucky shot where I got a female hummingbird and a hummingbird moth

Here's one I snapped in flight last summer

Another nice spring day on tap. Just saw DCA has been 60 or above 20 out of the last 22 days with 10 days above 70. GREAT spring so far, and looking at a long string of highs in the 60s coming up. I even saw a hummingbird at the feeder this morning, which is about 10-15 days early compared to past years.

Thunderstorm was pretty intense here a couple hours ago, and there were so many white petals mixed in from a huge flowering tree that it looked like a snow squall. I don't have my gauge up yet but that had to be about 1.0-1.5 in about a half hour. A few good lightning strikes too.

Yeah this is too warm too soon. Dulles at 83 and DCA at 82. I like the next seven days with all 60s and low 70s. That's more like it!

Yeesh upper 30/low 40s in early afternoon on April 2 with full sun. If the sky clears and the winds drop tonight, we'll have some frosty temps.

Snow shower in Germantown. Hard to believe we were in the 80s a few days ago. Back in the mid 1980s (in Calvert) in April, we hit 96 degrees one day, and four days later had a snow squall that put down a dusting.

Nice! Deer and rabbits hate me. I plant tropical milkweed, lantana and annual vinca. It's a food desert for those remorseless stomachs with legs.

Was surprised to see a brief graupel shower a few minutes ago. Looking forward to low 70s next week -- hummingbirds are into Virginia.

Darn gusts woke me up a bunch of times overnight. I better go check that siding...

It's in the point-and-click too. Maybe a little inside joke about them bringing in the snow boards?

THANK YOU ORAL ROBERTS! Any time the Gators lose is a holiday

Rooting for the Terps as both kids go there. Glad my Noles won, but they've been looking sloppy. What the hell Ohio State LOL

I don't trust this place one bit. A few years ago I planted some annuals a little early and we got down to 23 in the last week of April. I am waiting until May.

Multiple recent reports in Denver area of just 3-6 on the ground. Getting the mid-atlantic treatment?