No rain for a week in the middle of winter. That happens sometime nearly every winter, but is not usually this warm, unless it happens in February. The creek has dropped below its ordinary winter level, I think. It's hard to be sure because the creek resculptured its bed when it flooded last month. Soil is in a workable state for gardening, but of course, the days are rather short still. I've been cutting down and digging out a patch of Himalaya blackberries, and the process is not at all muddy. I also started a tray of lettuce and brassica seeds, just in case the weather happens to be favorable to them early. The pullets have been laying for a couple weeks and are now producing at about 65%. Frankly, I'm surprised. There are plenty of weed sprouts for them to nibble, as well as some critters in the soil. I've been giving them a couple hours to free range in the afternoons so they can scratch up their own goodies. Song sparrows and spotted towhees appear to be flirting already. Daffodils are 6" tall, give or take a bit. We have had a foggy day, and a couple foggy mornings, but otherwise mostly clear with sunny days. Twice this week, I've had to break the ice in the watering pans. It was freezing by 7 PM this evening, so maybe we will have a pretty hard freeze tonight.
Rosettes of phacelias, bull thistle and tansy ragwort are looking robust and growing. I should check to see if there's a good crop of dandelion leaves. The weather people have been talking about high particulates and considerable pollen. I haven't noticed particulates (smog) here, but likely there is some pollen. Commercial hazelnut trees should be in bloom. The wild ones aren't yet. The little stream that flows out from our pond is rather choked with all the dead dried vegetation that matted down into it when we got all that extra rain last month. Ski season probably is a bust. The mountain doesn't even look properly white. Lots of bare spots. The county did dribble de-icer on our local roads this past week. Fire danger is low.
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