The last several days have been humid. The temperatures have been in the mid 70s to low 80s.
The sand plums are flowing. Meaning that they bloomed and then a day or two later, their nectar had started flowing, you can tell because they release a heady scent in the air, and of course they are covered with a variety of bees, and bee flies. I also see some young firefly beetles on the blooms, and a harvester moth.
My honey bees are taking full advantage of the plum blossoms, along with mason bees and sweat bees and even a bumble bee of some sort. I saw a bee fly on one that I had never seen here before. It was actually fuzzy, black and yellow like a bumble bee. I am hoping to get a picture of it at some point.
Redbuds are in full bloom nearby, so no doubt the bees are taking advantage of those as well.
We are expecting a chance of severe t-storms later today, most likely due to afternoon convection heating. I am glad that it is not any warmer than it is. With the high winds and the moisture in the air, the conditions could be right for some long track tornadoes. Yikes! But so far it's stayed pretty cool in spite of all the other conditions that are lining up.
The clouds are very low and moisture laden. You can tell by the way they sort of list and rotate horizontally, slowly. Like people floating lazily in microgravity. Normally even during the rain, it's strait up cumulonimbus and altonimbus clouds that are in formation, with distinct edges and bottoms. Rather than these floating dust bunnies. The last time we had a lot of clouds like that, we had a couple of very wet years. The clouds looked more like they belonged over the Gulf Of Mexico off the Yucatan Peninsula, rather than over Oklahoma.
My apple trees have just started to bud out. Only about 10 percent of the tree is in bloom. There is no scent, so the flowers are not producing their full load of nectar yet.
The Forsythias are almost spent, as are the Bradford flowering pears and the peaches.
The roses are covered with glossy, fat leaves. And even my Clematis is out with buds already swelling next to the leaves. We don't normally see those until late April or early June.
I have started my garden early. However our frost date is not until 15 April. So what do I do if we get the usual cold snap right around Easter?
Milk and 2 liter coke bottles will make fine heat traps for smaller plants. Cut the bottoms out and place them over the plants, with the lids removed. If it's going to be really cold, do that and then put a plastic sheet or bed sheet over those bottles. This protects the plants from being broken by the weight of the sheet laying on them and gives them an extra layer of air-insulation to keep them warm enough.
Plastic row covers will due for things like potatoes or small seedlings that are barely poking out of the ground.
For big tomato plants, you can take a tomato cage and put a plastic garbage bag or pillow case over the cage. This will work for a short period of time for cold weather. If it gets below freezing for more than a day, you might want to mulch temporarily with straw or newspaper. Be sure and remove it when the it warms back up, or it could cause problems with fungus.
Never leave those plastic covers on plants if the temps are going to get up in the high 60s or higher. Because it will be like a solar oven and you will cook your plants. It would be like leaving your pet in a car with rolled up windows on a sunny day. No good can come of that!
I had heard a rumor that due to the unusual spring weather pattern, that we aren't going to really have much in the way of cold weather before our usual frost date. It will be interesting to find out.
My potatoes are finally peaking through the straw and my onions look fabulous. I finally got those shallots in the ground as well. They won't be sprouting for another couple days.
I know that the reptiles are out too, because one of our chickens caught a cricket snake yesterday. She swallowed the poor thing whole before we could rescue it. This is the earliest I have seen snakes out in these parts.
We have a bumper crop of large male mosquitoes and the old man found the first tick of the season on his leg.
6:24 PM PT: Normally, this time of year in Central Oklahoma, we have very windy days and warm is the high 40s. We still get almost down to freezing at night, because our frost date isn't until the 15th of April. We get some rain out of the deal, but mostly cool, sunny, windy days. Windy enough, that it makes it feel cooler than it is. Usually, the red buds and bradford pears are only just starting to bud out if at all. Because they don't all go at once.
Forsythias too and daffodils.
But the latter were almost 2 weeks ago! My apples are budding out with some flowers--that shouldn't happen til the end of this month!. We are a month ahead of schedule, but the cold snap that usually hits around Easter, hasn't yet.
I just covered my garden plants with buckets and pots, because we are expecting hail tonight. Also unheard of this time of year. Normally we don't get those threats til the very end of March or beginning of April. And even then not regularly. Because MAY used to be our big Tornado season.