[Magdalen] Imbolc

[Lynn Ronkainen]

80 here in Houston. Unusual even here. May have first frost later this week. Crazy!
Lynn 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 1, 2016, at 7:40 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

In Tennessee I often had the first daffodils the last week of February (a
variety appropriately named "Ice Follies"). Here they might not bloom until
the second week of March, and are more likely to be a semi-wild "hoopskirt"
variety that I brought with me and that naturalized like mad. The Ice
Follies are planted in a more sheltered location and bloom later. But we
get snow crocus very early.

On Monday, February 1, 2016, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> There were scilla shoots peeping through below my rural-style mail box at
> the top of my lane.   This is north of Lake Ontario, east of Toronto, and
> it was 10C today, what's that 50F maybe?  On Feb 1st. 'Tain't right,
> 'tain't natural.
> 
> Marion, a pilgrim
> 
>> On 2/1/2016 8:20 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> In a message dated 2/1/2016 7:26:16 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>> jay.weigel at gmail.com writes:
>> 
>> I had  some confused snowdrops trying to bloom before the snow here. I
>> hoped
>> they  thought better of it, but with a couple of 50-degree days, I'm not
>> so
>> sure.  Daffodil spikes showing, too.>>>>>>
>>  When we lived in Germany (Frankfurt/M) the priest gave a sermon
>> which included references to daffodils "soon to bloom."  This  was
>> mid-February, and my ex-wife and I, both natives of Minnesota and
>> Wisconsin looked at each other in bewilderment.  As far as we  were
>> concerned it was the preacher who was daft.
>>  Daffodils routinely bloom in May in the Upper Midwest, but in the
>> much milder Frankfurt/M climate, he was right.  They were  blooming
>> by Washington's Birthday 22 February.
>>  I don't think people who have not lived in the extreme continental
>> climates
>> have any idea how totally frozen everything is from Halloween until
>> mid-April.  Every flake of snow during the entire season is there to  melt
>> quickly, spring flowers finish in a flash, and after a few uncertain days
>> it
>> is hot and humid summer.
>>  There really is no spring there in contrast to Pennsylvania USA where
>> spring
>> is a lengthy, lovely affair.
>>      David Strang.
>