Fresh cut pussy willows for the studio.
This is a first. Pussy willows in January. Before this, the earliest I have seen them is mid-February. They appear much more commonly in March.
I wasn’t looking for them, it being too early. They just caught me eye. At first I thought they were ice or snow. It is hard to believe they are out so early.
This has been a strange year. Not only have we not had a cold streak of -20° for an extended period, we have not had much snow in the valley bottom.
The ice on the lake is also thinner than it is usually. There haven’t been many trucks or ice shacks on the surface. Nor has the Whiteway, a skating and skiing track on Lake Windermere, been able to open.
Last year near the end of February, after a warm spell, I convinced Lisa to come with me to look for pussy willows. She said we were too early and she was right, we didn’t find any. We were in the same spot I found this years. On the way back down the mountain I got the truck stuck and had to dig it out of the snow.
This year we can get higher into the mountains. There is still plenty of snow, but I suspect the snowpack is way down.
There is still lots of winter left and things could turn around. If not this will go down as a very mild winter.
Palliser Pass 
Anonymous
Pussywillows in January….how incredibly odd. They are making me very happy right now, but I cannot get over how strange this winter has been. And yes, it may get colder and start to snow, but come February, I break out the seed catalogues!
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underswansea
I hear you Deb! The way things are going, maybe we should plan on planting in early April.
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Jim R
This might go down in the records as one of your outlier winters. We will have to wait a bit longer. We have also missed the coldest days. Nothing below 0˚F yet. Usually we get some -20˚F by now. There has been plenty of snow, but not on us.
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underswansea
Hi Jim, yes it has been a strange one so far. Bob
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Laurent
Climate change and I suspect this will become more frequent now. The weather in PEI is frigid, tonight it feels like -21C not common at all here.
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underswansea
Hi Larry, we have experienced a mild this winter this year. Very strange. Thanks for stopping by. Bob
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mountaincoward
I’d have expected those in late Feb or March! Our winter has been pretty good so far (as in nice and warm) unlike last year’s horror! I know it’s not right but I have to say I prefer it…
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underswansea
Hi Carol, it has been a strange year. I picked a bad year to take a part time job plowing snow. We have only plowed 4 times so far. Crazy! Take care. Bob
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mountaincoward
Yet, places in Europe (like Greece) who almost never get snow are ‘wick with it’ as we say here!
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Julie@frogpondfarm
So far so good, we are having a great summer .. although more wind than usual. And Auckland does like to rain .. 🙂
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underswansea
Hi Julie, good to hear you are having a great summer. I bet you are inundated with fresh veggies. Oh how we could use those now. Hope all is well. Bob
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