mL's blog
2008-04-28 -- Snow in April?
Even in the dead of winter snow rarely ever reaches the bottom of Western Oregon's inland valleys, but when we got up this morning, surprise surprise... there was an inch of snow and still falling! During a normal year, our “snowy season” (meaning the period of time there's the remote possibility that some white fluffy stuff might fall from the sky) is generally from mid-December to mid-March, so a late April snow is remarkable. I don't think it's happened in my lifetime.
That makes me glad I didn't go and plant a bunch of the garden last weekend when it was 70 and sunny. (The warmest days on record for April, by the way.) I have one tomato and a bundle of basil in the ground that I wrapped plastic bags around, so I think they will make it, but I might have to wait two or three more weeks for some of the others.
Poor confused climate. It's a hazard for everyone and everything... people, plants, animals...
This afternoon the sun came out and melted all the snow. Not more than a half an hour later a bank of black clouds rushed up from the west and suddenly started blowing hail sideways at the house. The little ice pellets started smacking against the window beside my computer and as I looked up, something a little larger blew past... kah-thunk! Whatever it was had just been blown into the side of the house.
I immediately went out the front door to see if I could tell what it was. I didn't see anything at first, but then I noticed something a little less green than the moss that grows on the walkway. There was a tiny little green-yellow bird, smaller than the palm of my hand! It was just sitting there on the moss, alive and with no visible injury but obviously stunned out of his poor little gourd. Not to mention he was still getting blasted by freezing wind and ice pellets.
I didn't want to take him inside in case he decided to fly and I couldn't leave him there (neighbors half-wild herd of voracious cat-type creatures and all), so I just sat there for a bit cradling the little thing in my hands. He fluffed up and I thought he might go to sleep (and die, I was afraid) but after several minutes the hail stopped and another bird started chirping in a tree nearby. At that point his eyes flew open and with no more than a nudge from me, he flew off up into the tree. I hope he's ok!
Whew! Well that's today's excitement; now back to the mundane. ;-)
~mL