Question of the Day, Sunday, February 21, 2016

good afternoon!   

i'm very ready for winter to come to an end! yesterday the temperature reached 52 degrees F       , and that gave me hope that winter will soon be over and spring will take over.

with these thoughts on my mind, for today's Question of the Day, let's talk about spring where each of us live!

What are some of the things you like/love about spring where you live?

i'll start!

i really enjoy spring time! it always feels like a very positive time of year, with everything starting to grow again outdoors, and a combination of 'winter's finally over' and some warmish weather with some sunny days. i love seeing the first flowers of spring bloom.........crocus, in my gardens. spring is also a time that i 'switch gears', focusing less on moving firewood/keeping the wood stove going and more on my outdoors plans/projects/chores which i begin during the spring.

this year is our little DeeDee and Allie's first spring (they were both born in august 2015). i love seeing them experience the seasons for the first time! both girls were very excited about seeing snow falling for the first time, and this reminded me of the first time my little snick    saw snow falling for the first time -- she was very excited about that too! 

i look forward to not needing to wear layers of clothing, and smelling the freshness of the outdoors during spring time.

i also very much look forward to my strawberry plants starting to grow, and checking on the perennials in my gardens to make sure they're starting to grow too.

how about you?

We joke that there are two seasons in the Chicago area - Winter and Construction :lol3: Spring and Autumn always seem like fleeting moments between the hot and cold weather. Usually they come in the middle of the "cold" and "hot" seasons like they did yesterday.

With that said, I enjoy being able to go out with a light jacket in the mild weather. When I would do races, it was also really nice to go running in the milder weather. I enjoy being able to go for rides with the windows open. Also enjoy saving money at home by not having heat OR A/C on! And then there are the joyrides. I love joyrides

Lukewarm weather, not too hot or too cold. Pretty flowers everywhere. Greenery.


Less winter clothing and accessories. Thunderstorms. No worries about bad roads anymore.



Still not a lot of bugs yet 

Start of convention or festival season.

Baby animal season ~ 

Since I have depression that is worse in winter I look forward to the sun and less gloomy days. It feels like I can breath again with the sun and the birth of a new season. I enjoy walking and playing with the kids. I also want to allow my son to play t-ball this year. Plus I look forward to visits to Kentucky. 

The snowbirds GOING HOME!!!

Blooming pear trees.  You go to bed one night, and they are bare.  The next afternoon they are covered in white blossoms, and a few days after that it looks as it it is snowing as the petals fall.  Gorgeous. 

That's the main one.  Open windows, but we can do that off and on all year round.  It's 68 degrees here today. 

Mostly I don't care for spring, simply because I have over 400 airborn allergies, and from the middle of March till the last part of October, I snuffle and huff and puff and itch.  And that's WITH Claratin. 

Warm weather

Open windows to let fresh air in

The return of the swans to the Public Garden

I can put most of my winter clothes away. I keep a few items on hand because spring weatehr can turn chilly sometimes around here.

Wildlife babies

Donutte said:

We joke that there are two seasons in the Chicago area - Winter and Construction :lol3:

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We say the same thing over here in MN :lol3:
My absolute favorite thing about spring is that everything is green! Snow is pretty and sparkley at first, but it gets real old real fast. After it stops being pretty, it's just gloomy and dead and cold. It makes me so happy to finally have things growing again.
Besides that, I love car rides with the windows down, walks on the gateway trail, pretty dresses in fluttery fabrics, and just good old sunshine! Makes me happy to see how happy Ruby is in the spring too, and this year I'll be taking her (and Onyx) outside!

We say the same thing over here in MN :lol3:

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I believe that - the seasons (both of them) are way more extreme there. However, I've been there in March once where it was nicer there than it was here! I was there last year in September, I believe, and it was hot as heck! It felt good to come back to Chicago for the cool weather!

I look forward to opening the house and the spring fragrances of daffodils and lilacs. I miss- dogwoods, azaleas, and camellias.

I just love the smell...the way dirt smells when it warms up. I work next to a creek...it's a long walk, but the smell of dirt coming to life every year, followed by all kinds of flowers, makes it all worth the while

It's also great to know Robin will have a few months of entertainment watching his fellow robins and Jay's flit to and fro, from his roost on the windowsill. Lol

The very best thing about spring is that the day time temperature gets above freezing for the first time in about 2 months. Night times are still in the minus figures, but I don't mind that.

Once it starts to warm up and the ground thaws lots of the cats go outside to pee which means I can get by with less litter boxes and less scooping.



I've just noticed my tulip and daffodils are starting to peek out of the snow. That's another thing I love about spring, a bit of colour after all this monochrome.

Opening every single window in the house. The cats love to sit in open windows. They'll sit for hours and chitter away at the birds and the bunnies.

The smell of lilacs. We have two lilac bushes at the west end of our house. When the windows are open and the lilacs are in bloom, the smell goes right through the entire house. There is nothing more intoxicating than the smell of fresh lilacs. I always take a deep breath and say, "Smell those lilacs!".

Colors: red, pink and white peonies; the purple lilacs, yellow and white daffodils, the blue grape hyacinths, the yellow forsythia, red tulips, the pink of the redbud in the front yard. That gorgeous orange from our poppies. Color is everywhere and it's so welcoming after the greys and whites of the winter.

Donutte said:

We joke that there are two seasons in the Chicago area - Winter and Construction

Spring and Autumn always seem like fleeting moments between the hot and cold weather. Usually they come in the middle of the "cold" and "hot" seasons like they did yesterday.

With that said, I enjoy being able to go out with a light jacket in the mild weather. When I would do races, it was also really nice to go running in the milder weather. I enjoy being able to go for rides with the windows open. Also enjoy saving money at home by not having heat OR A/C on! And then there are the joyrides. I love joyrides

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oh, yes!!! 

my dad and i would take drives when i was a kid, only during the warmer weather. he'd start out on the back (dirt) roads, and when we'd get to an intersection he'd ask me, 'Which way?' i'd choose either right, left, or straight onward. eventually dad would say we'd better be heading back home, and would always know just which turns to make to get us there. those drives were special times for me as a kid! 

Fyllis said:

 
Open windows (house and car!)
fresh smells
less clothes
no shoes
budding trees
chirping birds
first flowers
grass under my feet
warmer weather
longer days
thunder storms
sun on my face
the sound of Harley's on the road
animals emerging 
bright colors
and Cadbury Eggs!

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yes! i'm looking forward to having windows open again in the house too! and all three cats enjoying laying in the window sills, sunning themselves and watching the birds and bugs outdoors.

and longer days! thank you for reminding me of that!   

Donutte said:

We joke that there are two seasons in the Chicago area - Winter and Construction :lol3: Spring and Autumn always seem like fleeting moments between the hot and cold weather. Usually they come in the middle of the "cold" and "hot" seasons like they did yesterday.

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We have the same joke in Denver, and lately road construction season has begun impinging on winter!

What I like most is the misty green look of trees when they're just budding out. And the weather for the last week or so has been so warm that I'm beginning to see it already, months too soon. We are going to have such a big branch breaker snow storm this spring. It happens every few years, whenever we get a long warm spell in late winter.

Margret

Cassiopea said:

 
Lukewarm weather, not too hot or too cold. Pretty flowers everywhere. Greenery.


Less winter clothing and accessories. Thunderstorms. No worries about bad roads anymore.



Still not a lot of bugs yet 

Start of convention or festival season.

Baby animal season ~ 

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definitely! though we do get may flies here sometimes, and those are very, very nasty.         may fly bites swell up like welts, and the itching is like nothing i'd ever experienced before.

Louann Jude said:

 
Since I have depression that is worse in winter I look forward to the sun and less gloomy days. It feels like I can breath again with the sun and the birth of a new season. I enjoy walking and playing with the kids. I also want to allow my son to play t-ball this year. Plus I look forward to visits to Kentucky. 

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ahhh......the sun, feeling the warmth of the sun again!

my nephew enjoyed t-ball when he was younger!

Kat0121 said:

 
The snowbirds GOING HOME!!!

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