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Post by desertwoman on Feb 1, 2021 21:55:30 GMT -5
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Ground Hog Day. Punxsutawney Phil's shadow or no shadow? 6 more weeks of winter? or an early spring? Besides Punxsutawney Phil there is the west coast Mohave Maxine-- care to enlighten us Latitude33 , roxy davidjp ?-- Does anywhere else have a big ol' rodent come out to predict when winter will end? A couple other tidbits : Groundhog Day is midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. It is also the day of Candlemas, which has its own history. In celebration, anyone going to watch the movie classic "Groundhog Day". Count me in! |
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Post by armjr on Feb 1, 2021 23:02:19 GMT -5
With what is going on up in the NE right now I'm guessing the big rat is not going to see even where his shadow aught to be. I'm buying tomato sets this weekend!
Alan
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Post by binnylou on Feb 2, 2021 0:53:05 GMT -5
I'm buying tomato sets this weekend! , You're getting ready to plant tomatoes outside and I'm sittin' here with goosebumps on my scalp. I'm so ready to feel the sunshine on my back, but it may be another six months..  |
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Post by pepperhead212 on Feb 2, 2021 12:25:48 GMT -5
Sorry to say, armjr, but Phil saw his shadow today. They started getting sun before I did, but it is sunny here now...with snow still falling. |
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Post by James on Feb 2, 2021 12:39:14 GMT -5
Legend has it that if the Ground Hog sees his shadow on Feb 2, we will have 6 more weeks of winter. I have a sister born on Feb 2, so we always called her the Ground Hog. So I call my sis to wish her Happy Birthday. She goes on and on about this and that. Her hubby is gone and she lives at home alone these days.
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Post by emmsmommy on Feb 2, 2021 12:50:43 GMT -5
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 2, 2021 14:16:45 GMT -5
"This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat."
~ Bill Murray - "Groundhog Day"
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Post by Wheelgarden on Feb 2, 2021 16:03:15 GMT -5
"Next-Door Willie" saw his shadow, which pleases the folks next door, whose garden often gets ravaged by them (I've been spared, thus far, somehow). Maybe they'll stay under for a bit longer.
Six more weeks of dag-blasted winter, shadow or not...ah, but fortunately, the beds are prepped, hoop-houses ready, and got my seed starting rig set up. Damn the torpedos!
Does anyone else ever notice groundhogs standing upright by the roadsides like a statue, watching the cars go by and waiting to cross?
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Post by binnylou on Feb 2, 2021 16:29:19 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, yup...then there’s the occasional critter that didn’t stop and look both ways.
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Post by Latitude33 on Feb 2, 2021 20:46:39 GMT -5
Besides Punxsutawney Phil there is the west coast Mohave Maxine Sorry, no Mohave Maxine, but you gave me an idea for Surfin Squirrel. Thinking a cool little grommie dude with a bushy bushy blonde tail that shreds the mackers on his favorite thruster for dawn patrol. Every February 2nd he does a pop up and if he doesn't see any bogie boarders then there will be six more weeks of "winter". Out of the way toasters, Surfin Squirrel is in the lineup. |
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Post by Mumsey on Feb 3, 2021 8:02:14 GMT -5
I don't pay much attention to the groundhog. No matter how you look at it, there is always 6 more weeks of Winter. It's just the weather that is iffy!
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Post by tom 🕊 on Feb 3, 2021 9:55:18 GMT -5
the west coast Mohave Maxine Mojave Maxine is a desert tortoise in The Living Desert zoo in Desert Palms, California. Desert tortoises in this area typically go into a burrow around Thanksgiving and come out in January. This year Maxine came out 18 January. The theory is that desert tortoises come out to eat the flowers that have been brought into bloom by "spring" rains, but from the looks of Maxine's area, if she got any flowers, it was because zookeepers threw then in. Maxine has been coming out a few days earlier each year for the last several years, so for next year I'd guess 15 January for her emergence. The Political Correct suggest that Maxine is coming out earlier because of Global Warming. I suggest that her increasingly earlier emergence is because Maxine is getting old, and the old do not sleep as well as the young. |
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Post by James on Feb 3, 2021 11:03:13 GMT -5
Shadow or not, we have six more weeks of winter.
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Post by armjr on Feb 3, 2021 21:22:15 GMT -5
I watch the Mesquite trees. When they start putting on leaves, there's no more freezing weather.
Alan
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Post by James on Mar 1, 2021 11:38:21 GMT -5
Alan: "When they start putting on leaves, there's no more freezing weather."
Interesting observation. Doesn't work here. I have seen frost every month of the year. One year it froze the tomatoes on the 5th of July after being 90 for the parade on the 4th. Here ya just plant and hope. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Only thing sure is that the weather will do as it pleases and nothing you can do about it.
I have many times covered the plants with a cardboard box or a roll of Visqueen to help protect from a late frost.
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