What a gorgeous day! A day that feels like spring in the air! A day to be outside doing things! Wash the vehicles! Paint those new bluebird houses our friend gave us! Repot some houseplants in the potting shed! Such a nice break from the freezing temps we've had for the past few weeks. Just three days ago it was 10 degrees in the morning. This morning it was 42, and now it is 65.
I appreciate this warm weather, but -- it isn't natural. This is a symptom of global warming - the extremes in temperatures, the chaotic shift in weather patterns across the country. Yet, I will enjoy this warm weather while it lasts.A hawk has been spending a lot of time on top of our martin house for the past month or so. It makes a great vantage point from which he can easily spot prey scurrying around on the ground below.
These aren't the greatest pics, but thought I'd take a break from my writing and put them on my blog. I have discovered that pictures upload quicker on photo bucket than they do on here, so I upload them to photo bucket and then simply copy and past the direct link.
Betsy had a post about weather on her blog and it inspired me to share information about the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (COCORHAS), a "grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) in their local communities. " We read about COCORHAS in the Tennessee Magazine, a monthly magazine that our power company puts out. We've been participating in COCORHAS for 13 months now. We purchased the special rain gauge from COCORHAS, as required, and every morning at 8:00 Doug goes on line to report the amount of precipitation that we had in our guage. We can look on the map and see how much rain fell in other parts of the state, or in the country if we choose. Right now we are the only station in our county. Up until a few months ago there were two of us but the other guy must have stopped doing it. Other than the purchase of their special rain gauge (and hail pad if you choose, but we chose not to since we seldom receive hail), to keep things standard, there is no cost, and it is fun! COCORHAS also has a blog.
