What are you doing here?

/ December 27, 2014

An unexpected guest showed up at our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, and just five days from the New Year yet.

I noticed the visitor loitering in the corner of our backyard when I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out for her morning Saturday romp.

This corner rose bush has gone green around the edges on Dec. 28, 2014, in Syracuse, N.Y.

This corner rose bush has gone green around the edges on Dec. 28, 2014, in Syracuse, N.Y.

OK, I have to admit that my dear wife Karen may have invited the greening of the corner rose bush by her fall maintenance routine.

The warm weather, with temperatures in the 40s and even 50s the past week or so, has done the rest. The local TV weather guy just now said today will peak at 48 degrees, and we won’t fall to the average temperatues in the low 30s until Monday and below average in the low 20s with some snow until Tuesday.

I do not think the rose bush will push out a bloom before then.

Will it?

Is it greening up at all around your house because of warmer than normal temperatures? What’s usually the first sign of green life in your yard? What month do you predict your first flower of 2015?

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63 thoughts on “What are you doing here?”

    • When we adopted her from the humane society, they already were calling the cute puppy Ellie, and we liked it. We brought her to a doggie day care when she was real young for socialization, and there was another Ellie already there, so the handlers started calling her Ellie B, and we liked that, too! I added the aka Dogamous Pyle part, Cat, after seeing her wonderfully adventurous and stubborn personality. 🙂 And curious, too,

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  2. We had a day or two of rainy, warm weather. This morning I looked out the window and thought: “It’s absolutely greening up around here!”

    Never fear, though – I think we are due for an arctic blast tomorrow night.

    Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! 😀

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  3. Oh, I was afraid when you said you had a visitor, it was going to be another skunk! LOL! It’s been rainy and hot here. We’ve had just enough cold to make the Oak leaves and acorns fall and litter the front yard and junk up the gutters. I’m not going to bother cleaning them up until February when the cold is fully gone though.

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  4. Out here on the left coast, we’re having what most would call a typical Fall i to Winter transition. That said, its been so wonky the past few years that we dont know how to act anyways. Our late summer did move back harvest dates for most crops leading to my favorite farm stand staying open until Christmas Eve.

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  7. wow, that’s a cool surprise, mark. i’m experiencing all sorts of fits and starts from little plants around here, and worry they’ll be hurt when the winter weather really arrives and decides to stay for a while –

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  8. The warmer weather does disturb nature’s usual mood and greening of grass and trees has started in Ohio, too. I am always laughing at the way people grumble about no White Christmas, when soon enough they will grumble about having too much snow! ha ha!

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  9. The only ‘greening’ that we don’t look forward to in Florida is some blight that hits the citrus trees. It has wiped out many orange trees and that’s not a good thing for that industry and for those of us who love fresh, squeezed orange juice.

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  12. Here in Kentucky we usually get an unseasonably warm spell every winter at some point (or more than one) and every time my grape hyacinths pop up. We’re having warm weather now too but I’ve not wandered the yard to see what’s come up; I can see from the window that my sage still hasn’t gone dormant. I’m amazed every year that the inevitable return to frozen doesn’t kill those hyacinths — they show up and bloom around my pink tulips every spring.

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  14. Crazy weather here! It was almost 60 this weekend, today is pouring rain. We are getting into a drought concern, so the rain was welcome. Grateful it wasn’t snow. The grass is nice and green right now, makes Spring feel not as far off.

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  15. I love roses of every color. I could sniff roses all day.
    Great write up.
    Best wishes,
    Dana Guidera
    Author of “Seven Poems from Life”

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  16. It is greening up around here too Mark. I do notice that plants that are closer to a building will green quicker than those further away. The early starters are pretty adaptable when they will appear. Last year was a long, cold winter and the first flowers came up well into May (when the snow got down far enough). Typically they are up by April and in warm years in March. We have a gazzillion tulips around the federal lands here in Ottawa. They are a yearly gift from Holland for Canada’s part in freeing their country in WW2. They are hardy little fellows who will pop up very early – usually first with crocuses. They have brilliant colors and really start the spring off with a rush.

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  17. We have been enjoying unseasonably warm temps as well Mark. Not sure how good it is for any plant to start to green and then have it get cold again. 😦

    We get blooms and greenery late in the spring because we often have freak snow dumps in May. Actually, in my 20+ years in Calgary, I have seen it snow in every month at one time or another. Once, years ago, I was catching some rays on my balcony in July and it began to snow across the street!

    Diana xo

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  20. For the past couple of years I have noticed that birds seem to be nesting year-round. Just a month ago I saw young-uns flitting around out of the nest. Their clocks are all off. It is now 8:00am in Culver City and 43F degrees, warming up to 64… that is cold for us but I love it… having to turn the heater on in the bathroom is total heaven!

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  22. The plants are confused and so am I enough already it should be cold. Christmas was like Christmas in Texas just too weird. I predict my first flower in April as I think it will be a long winter once it starts.

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  25. I doubt you’ll see a bloom on the rose bush, Mark, until spring. My plants are confused too; I have pink blossoms coming out on the cherry tree and the forsythia has a few brave yellow blooms. When winter finally lands here in central VA, those plants will go into dormancy until real spring gets here just like your rose will.

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  26. March, but those are daffodils and expected then.

    I notice the buds on the dogwood outside my office window before anything else. It’s a young tree that came up naturally and maintenance was ok with where it “landed”. I will have to check it out for signs of spring next week 🙂

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