Fork Creek Journal

Warming Trend

We have many native rhododendrons on our property. I love their beauty when they bloom and I value the green they keep in the landscape, especially in the winter.   The buds are these cultivar rhodies started to form many months ago and they are yet another promise of summer's beauty to come.  

The beginning of the week has been colder each day than predicted, but we have had beautiful sunny days. The groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter, so I know that we have more cold weather yet to come, but the predicted temperatures for the remainder of the week show a continuing warming trend, with predicted high of 52F and low of 38F.

I'm hoping that tomorrow the temperatures will accommodate a long walk outside. 

The First Daffodils

We had another beautiful sunny day, but it was colder than predicted and the news reported a record low in Asheville last night.  The first daffodils looked a little  stressed from the below freezing temperatures last night, but they are beautiful anyway. 

They are the promise of many more to come. We have thousands all over the propertyy.  The first to bloom are always in this sunniest spot in our meadow, near where Fork Creek curves back towards the road as it begins to leave our property The last to bloom will be the ones on the mountain side of the house.

It is 26F right now, but it was a little warmer today than yesterday and that trend is supposed to continue.  Predicted high for tomorrow is 43F with low of 31F.

Lenten Rose

When I got up this morning and looked out the window, in spite of very cold temperatures, I saw our first daffodil blooms of the year in the sunniest spot in the meadow. Those are always the first to bloom.  I did not have time to take pictures of them before we headed out for the day, but will take some tomorrow.

If Bob had not noticed the daffodils or he would have taken pictures when we was outside before I got up. He did snap a picture of one of the first blooms on our Lenten rose.  It seems appropriate since Lent begins this Wednesday.

 

There were snow flurries while we were in Asheville, but despite the fact that it never got above freezing today, there has been no snow accumulation.  The evening weather report on local television referred to the "wicked wind chill." today.   The weather is supposed to warm up a little starting tomorrow with predicted temperatures for tomorrow are for a high of 40F, low of 20F.

Promise of Beauty To Come

As predicted, the weather turned quite cold in the past two days. In spite of the cold, we had a beautiful winter day today.  I think the high today was in the high 30's and the weather reported a low of 17F.  Tomorrow will be about the same with predicted high of 39F and low of 23F.

I have a cross-stitched piece in my studio that a good friend did over 25 year ago of the Albert Camus quote:  "In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."  I thought about that quote today when I saw the promise of summer beauty on the dead stalks of on one of the hydrangeas in the meadow coming back to life.

I have many flowers I love, but undoubtedly hydrangeas are my very favorite. We have many native lace caps on our acres here and we have added dozens of other varieties of hydrangeas over our years here. Two years ago, a very late hard freeze in April did so much damage that none of the hydrangeas bloomed at all that year other than the native ones.  We feared many were dead, like some of the Japanese maples killed in that freeze, but they all put out leaves again. But, no blooms appeared that year.

I always dry many hydrangea blooms and so truly I enjoy their beauty all year long, even in the winter. It is amazing to think about the length of the process that hydrangeas go through each year in preparing for the beauty they produce.

So, as much I'm still hoping for snow, once things begin to leaf I will let go of that desire and hope we do not have a late snow or freeze.

Despite the Cold Weather

We have had predictions of the possibility of snow twice recently, but none has materialized, YET. I'm still hoping. In the meantime, in spite of a lot of cold weather, the progress of the daffodils are a definite reminder that Spring is coming.

In early January we had unseasonably warm weather and I thought we might have daffodils blooming earlier than ever.  But, then, we had record cold temperatures and the tiny daffodil sprouts did not seem to be making any progress for a long time.

Then, all of a sudden, here they come.   It won't be long now.

 

Unfortunately, the weeds are growing as vigorously as the daffodils.

Today's predicted high was 49F with low of 36F, the prediction is for colder weather with low temperatures dipping as low as 20 starting tomorrow.

Rainy Day

Today was rainy all day long. Earlier in the day, it was a gentle rain. On our way home tonight, it was raining very hard all the way up Fork Creek Road with storm and high wind warnings when we checked the evening news.  This morning I saw a pair of crows in the old dogwood tree near the main bird feeders.  The entire time we have lived here, the crows come in groups of four, five, six or more.  I have never seen only a pair.  I saw this same pair yesterday in a tree on the edge of the property.

Predicted high for today was 65F with low of 41F.

Sunny & Warm

We have had unseasonably warm temperatures and beautiful winter sunshine for the past several days, quite a change from last week. Predicted high today of 69-F and low of 49-F. 

I know we will have more wintery days to come before Spring arrives.  I'm actually still hoping for a good snow.

Ice on Fork Creek

We never did get any snow this week, but we certainly had very cold temperatures. Thursday morning Bob took a number of pictures of ice that had formed. 

We have never seen ice in the creek and waterfalls like we have this year.

Fork Creek comes into our property below our driveway.  It then meanders through our meadow an under our neighbor's driveway where it parallels the road for a short piece before becoming a beautiful small waterfall on the next neighbor's property.

Even the water fall was almost all ice.

We've had beautiful sunny days for several days with temperatures warming up considerably today with a predicted high of 63F and low of 40F, but I doubt we see that high since it is 1:30 p.m. and the temperature is only 49F.

Still Hoping For Snow

I'm using Bob's old computer while mine is being fixed, so I don't have access to any pictures.

There was no white stuff to be seen when we woke up this morning, but on our way back from Charlotte tonight, it started snowing just as we turned on to Fork Creek Road. It was very light, but the temperature was below freezing so I hope that we might wake up tomorrow to a white blanket of snow.

The high for today was supposed to be 38-F with low of 18F, but the high for tomorrow is only predicted to be 27, so if we get snow, we won't be leaving the mountain tomorrow.

Groundhog Day on Fork Creek

Today was Groundhog Day when Americans observe what has been called "the world's most eccentric weather forecasting system. The groundhog saw his shadow and another six weeks of winter are predicted.

We often see ground hogs around Fork Creek in warmer seasons, but we have never seen one during winter. Sometimes when we see one, he/she is on all fours, but just as often, we see them standing up, kind of sitting back on their haunches. 

Today on our way to Hendersonville, we saw not one, but two groundhogs. They were both on their haunches fighting like mad, almost like they were boxing. Both of us regretted not having a camera.  We have never seen more than one at a time and have not seen one since the last warm weather, so it seemed ironic that these two came out exactly on Ground Hog Day.

Some people call the ground hogs, woodchucks. The locals call them whistle pigs and say that some people still eat them.  They are shy and usually stay keep their distance from people.  We had a groundhog on our property once and within a week, he/she had eaten every flower on our acreage.

It was snowing on our way home early evening, but nothing was sticking at Fork Creek.  Today's predicted high was 42-F, but it was never above 34 degrees while we were out from mid-day to early evening. Predicted low for tonight was 27-F, so maybe we will see a little white in the morning.  A snow lover can hope.