Date: 04/23/2014

Number: 1

After a brutal northeast winter where the ground in my front and back yards spent much of the past 4 months under between a foot and at times 3 feet of snow or more, I finally got outside the other day to begin the long process of raking leaves and picking up branches and sticks that have spent much of the winter under the snow. I was preparing the gardens the other day Wednesday 4/23 and raking out leaves to get the gardens ready for summer and found the first Common Milkweed stalk of the season in the garden in front of the house. Measures at just above 2cm tall. Just in time and two days later than last year. Today Friday 4/25 I found 5 more stalks in a garden in the back yard that receives most of the sun. Each one of those was between 1 and 2cm tall. We had a warming trend two weeks ago with temps in the high 70'sF but then for the past week the temps have dipped back into the 50's F during the day with up to 30 mph winds, which made it feel a lot colder and low 30's F at night with strong winds that gave a wind chill reading of mid 20's F. Not much else showing signs of life except for the forsythias that have begun to flower in the past 3 days and the tulips which are just beginning to show buds. It is extremely dry outside though and incredibly windy, which is creating a risk of forest fires. Just yesterday I stopped by the roadside and attempted to put out a patch of burning grass and mulch as it got out of hand from a tossed cigarette and ironically the town fire chief pulled in behind me and called for a firetruck over his radio to put it out. Hopefully we get some rain and the spring growing season can continue.

Newfoundland, NJ

Latitude: 41.1 Longitude: -74.4

Observed by: Bob
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