Spring at last

Spring? Its snowing for the second day! What's he on about?

Polandian and W-wa Jeziorki have both had a bit of the weather miseries. My own feelings on the False Spring Blues identified my body feeling that spring had arrived whilst my mind was busy telling me it hadn't. The obvious corollary to this, although it only occurred to me after, was 'what if my body is right and my brain was wrong?'.

The reason for my body to be fooled was quite obvious. Although we have had a lovely period of warm weather, it is just the middle of January - near enough mid-winter. The weather has been so warm that the snow and ice around me had almost all disappeared. The pond had changed from this:





To first a flooded garden:



And then, after pumping out the water over five days, there is only a small area of ice floating on the water. As Babcia said several times "the green is lovely".



Spring was definitely in the air. I met more people walking around the estate in those warm days than throughout the whole snowy period. The dogs on the way to the shop had figured out it was the mating season - Mika isn't allowed to do naughty things, but she has dragged me further than the winter norm, sniffing whatever she could find. Mole hills had appeared on someone's drive just by the shop. Some mosquitoes were buzzing around. Mind you, they all might be fooled as well.

However, tidying up in the garden, spring is already here. OK, daffodils, alliums and bulb irises normally appear when the snow melts, but they are well advanced.





But flowers in bloom?





So many other plants starting to grow, such as these aquilegias.



I nearly dug out the chrysanthemums in May last year because I thought they were dead, but they are already alive and well this year.



I sought help from the professionals. A Google Translate of Twoje Pogoda - click on forecast for the next six months - gave:

February milder

February brings the withdrawal of the winter. In the first half of the month we still have to deal with snow and frost, but in the second half will be the first deeper thaw. The temperature will rise quickly and it is possible that the first puffs of warmer air will appear before the end of February.

March has spring

Winter resolved early, so in March we will be able to enjoy the early spring with higher temperatures than usual this month.

The forecast for the next few weeks is mainly below freezing, but not deepest cold. It won't take much for the weather to be just a bit better then expected for spring to be maintained. So I am now hoping that it has not been a false spring, but that we have entered a short false winter.

Scoff, laugh, ridicule me, whatever your wont, but do you know what I saw on Monday?



Not a clue? Skylarks! They leave here for the winter, but they had come back, singing and flying around me (leaving the next day, so I suspect they were stopping off on their way north). On Sunday, there had been the flight of large ducks/geese/swans heading north: a less concrete sign, but it all adds up.

Don't be surprised in a couple of weeks or so if the news announces that spring has arrived unexpectedly early in Poland this year.

Are these tree buds opening?



Of course, there has to be a spoil sport. The lady in the shop told me that the winter will still kill everything off. Tuesday's 'red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning':



She's wrong - I feel it in my bones.