MetaChat - Hope of spring

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27 February 2008

Hope of spring This morning, I heard a male cardinal trying to sing up a mate. →[More:] I thought he was being overly optimistic, but it IS almost March -- even if it is still 19 degrees here in north Missouri.

On my way to the car, under some half-melted ice in my yard, I saw what looked to be pleated, yellowish, frozen and refrozen brain matter. I kicked it and found the stem -- not the brain stem, but the stem to a mushroom that was most certainly a morel. There was another nearby. Apparently, they had tried to brave Monday's thaw, only to be caught in the re-freeze.

However, I will be searching the yard for this delicacy to reappear in a couple of weeks.

post by: lleachie at: 09:05 | 15 comments

I love your description, lleachie. I remember the first time I ever saw a jar of morels in my Ohio boyfriend's fridge. I honestly thought they were bunny brains.

posted by essexjan 27 February | 09:15

Bunny brains!

Zombie bunny sez: Braaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnssss!

Somehow, I find bunny brains really funny today.

posted by lleachie 27 February | 09:27

The hummingbirds here are in serious courting mode. The males fly up reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally high, then swoop down really fast, and make a very strident whistling noise with their wings. I live on the third floor and have windows overlooking the backyard, so I get to see them at the top of their flight, hovering and puffing out their chests and waiting to make sure that the lady hummingbirds are watching.

It's really the most adorable thing ever.

posted by occhiblu 27 February | 10:23

I'm glad that Spring is almost there. It sounds like it's been an intense winter.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought that winter here was over entirely. It just kept getting hotter and hotter. And it was really early for it: summer doesn't usually start until mid March. But then something happened last night and it's now quite chilly again. Not sure if it's a last hurrah or here to stay for awhile. I hope it just keeps things nicely cool for awhile, without being downright cold (I'd need to buy more blankets, I think).

So, here's to changing weather. May it keep subverting our expectations!

posted by mosessis 27 February | 10:23

occhiblu and mosessis, where are you from? Obviously some place warmer than we are -- "summer" here doesn't start till June!

HUMMINGBIRDS! I really need to step up my hummingbird plantings. I seldom get them in the yard in summer, even with a feeder. I'm hoping the bed of bergamot/bee balm I establish by the feeder this year will help entice them.

I get through the winters here by planning/starting my gardens. I will probably put a note or two in here over the next couple days about my world's smallest greenhouse and what is in it...

posted by lleachie 27 February | 11:49

I'm in San Francisco. I think we have Anna's Hummingbirds, though ikkyu seems to think they're Rufous Hummingbirds. I seem to remember reading that Anna'sesesesss were the only birds to hang out in urban areas around here, though; guess they're hipster hummers.

posted by occhiblu 27 February | 12:04

I came here hoping to post a sign of spring...though we really haven't seen any yet, not even with the most hopeful scan of the environment.

The best I can do is that think I might hear black-capped chickadees doing extra chirping outside my office window. But I might be exaggerating its significance.

posted by Miko 27 February | 13:29

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by essexjan 27 February | 13:38

I won't talk about the weather here because it will just make me feel guilty. I also won't talk about planting the garden for the same reasons.

P.S.: Ikkyu is wrong.

posted by mudpuppie 27 February | 15:21

P.S.: Ikkyu is wrong.

I know. Especially after looking at those photos. Our birds are not that brightly colored.

posted by occhiblu 27 February | 16:31

ikkyu's a doctor, not an ornithologist! :)

posted by lleachie 27 February | 17:13

Well, last night I told my husband about the morel sighting, and he asked, "How did you know it was a morel and not a false morel? And aren't false morels poisonous?" So we spent half an hour on the internet and I have him a thorough education on the difference between a real morel and a false morel. Our morel is putatively a yellow morel, the most common type, and I am hoping that spring yields a few we can actually pick and eat!

posted by lleachie 28 February | 10:55

I thought it was false morals that were poisonous.

posted by box 28 February | 11:30

False morals are also poisonous, but they're a much slower poison! ;)

posted by lleachie 28 February | 11:42

I'm from Florida but currently living in central Mexico.

posted by mosessis 28 February | 16:49

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