Nature Notes: Cold ending to March

I'm posting early for nature notes because I'm not sure when I'll have time to do it if I wait. If I don't visit other participants this week it's because of work but I'll catch you when I can. After a warm early March, our weather has turned around to a cold late March.

We've been lucky in that the temperatures didn't fall below freezing until the very wet few days cleared.

If it had been as cold when it was raining as it was last night, we would have had snow or an ice storm instead of rain.

It was still cold when raining but it was a few degrees above freezing.

I enjoy the mix of weather. It's definitely not boring or all one thing.

I know the birds would prefer that it not keep getting cold but at least it's not extreme temperatures.

Some people talked about covering there azaleas last night but I have too many and they are too large to cover.

So far they are doing remarkably well in spite of blooming on the early side.

Even if I lose early blooms there are still plenty that are barely showing their buds so I'll have flowers left for later.

The shot below is the water which collected in an empty pot when it was raining and last night formed a sheet of ice on top.

The other shots are chronological starting with last Thursday and moving up through today (Tuesday).

I guess I should be better about labeling my nature notes photos. I can't think of the name of the bush below but the shot above is yellow jasmine.

The very first shot is an oak tree. The colorful part of the second shot are white and pink dogwoods. The third shot is a male cardinal in the pecan tree. The fourth shot is
kolkwitzia amabilis. The fifth shot is a mockingbird. The sixth and seventh shots are azaleas. The eighth shot is narcissus and the ninth is a tulip. The shot below is pieris japonica.

Below is another of my azaleas and is a smaller form than some of my monster ones.

If we have any nights that are more than 10 degrees below zero, I can put sheets over the smaller forms but the monster ones are on their own. Fortunately my enormous azaleas are farther behind the small ones.

The bluebird above was hiding from my but I got a partial shot. The last shot is of another of my oak trees.

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