Springtime in the North Country, bored? Not in the least, as typical to the North Country, in Northern NH, our weather changes constantly.
Oh, you say that happens where you live?
Interestingly enough, because of all these beautiful mountains, our weather will change from day to day, then again, again, and again, sometimes in minutes! The old saying is “wait five minutes” and the weather will change.
On the most beautiful days in spring, our weather stays for a day, maybe a few, sometimes a week! Blue skies (in winter, skiers call that a Blue Bird Day), the green of the trees against that Cerulean Blue; breathtaking, I don’t know how else to describe these days.
Spring in Northern NH is exciting, a bit frustrating, something we all crave, waiting for, on the edge of our seats.
Ya know, it’s a gamble; we want the perfection, we know it never comes, but we bet that it will, but we always get caught short cause the cold comes back as a tease, just when we’ve settled into that beautiful, blue bird kinda day, where it’s an eternal vacation, we’re free, our spirits soar, our hearts open up, joy filled, blue sky, sunshine warming our faces, gardener’s are ready to plant early. Life is sooooo good.
Slam!
Snow tomorrow! Everyone grunts, ugh, my garden. Oh no! I’ve already taken the snow tires off my car, etc. It’s kinda funny cause all winter everyone prayed for snow. Ya know, those die hard skiers?, they did snow dances for lots of snow, yes they did! Someday, I’ll catch that on video! It’s fun to watch!
Now that winter is officially over, it’s spring, and it should be good weather!
This past month our spring weather’s been a mixed bag. Mud season, didn’t amount to much, the warm weather in the beginning of spring, dried up most roads, rather quickly. We’ve had incredible warmth and sunshine with cold the next day, wind, snow, rain, hail, sun again, two feet of snow (just two weeks ago), sunshine, warm days and nights, peepers singing wildly and now here it is, Mother’s Day, with snow flurries flying left and right!
The plants are blooming, trees are spreading their leaves with that beautiful “spring green” color. It’s an incredible sight to see when driving down a country road. I’m especially amazed to see how much the green shows through on the rainy days, it becomes a kind of “glowing spring green”! On rainy days, if you take a walk into the woods, the lichen on the trees shows it’s green color more deeply.
I’ve always found the “process” of spring to be exciting as we never know what to expect weather wise, it’s all fun and tantalizing to the eyes.
As I write this post, my wood stove is blazing, it’s toasty and I slip back into that winter mode of baking bread, making stew, knowing that a in a couple of days I’ll be back to planting my garden and thinking of eating salads.
Having an extended spring works for me as I’m in the middle of making my dandelion wine, and violet jam. I’ll be able to harvest more blossoms from both plants to make many more batches as the cooler spring weather is prolonging the harvest time for flower heads.
On the up side, the frost heaves are gone, it’s now possible to drive and drink coffee/tea at the same time without wearing you’re beverage of choice!
The bear, birds, deer and moose are all coming out of the deep woods where they spent the long winter. They too are eager for spring as they can now dine on the new growth of spring.
The rain and snow are blessing us with the most beautiful waterfalls! Life really is good in the North Country!
Here are some pics that I taken over the past month.
How could I forget? I have some pics from a friend that hiked up Cannon Mt. on 4.28/10 to ski the 2 ft of snow that we received!
Hiking up Cannon
Winter Wonderland in April 2010
Knee Deep Snow on Cannon Mt. 4/2010
More Snow Hiking!
Frost Heave Sign
Tree Lichen
Tree Moss
Great Pine Early Spring
Burls Growing in Tree
Bloodroot Plant
Coltsfoot Plant
Trillium in Bloom
Clouds Hover Over Cannon Mt.
Late April Snowstorm
Snowstorm Late April
Profile Lake, Franconia Notch, Opening Day Fly Fishing
Spring Green Against Snow Mountains
Spring Green Leaves and Cherry Tree Blossom
Spring Growth
I have lived in this area most of my life and it is beautiful all year round…so happy to be a part of it…
Debra, I agree with you and do believe that we’re the luckiest people in the world to live here in Northern NH!
I too am grateful to be living here! I think that it is the most beautiful place in the world.
The weather has been fluctuating a lot lately. I find it funny that we always forget how cold it can still get at night, when we start our gardens in the spring. We’ll be needing blankets for them tonight!
Brenda, You’re right! Oh, I just looked at the weather and it says tonight will be between 19 – 30 degrees! Can’t stay like this forever, I hope as I’d like to plant more than cold weather plants.