37 degrees and Sunny.
The bone throwers have changed their mind, the rain & freezing temps. for next week have been replaced with partly sunny and 40s.

Now two days from now that will change but next Tuesday the bones said it is supposed to hit 60.
Sammy & Smokey actually went outside today and did some genuine exploration, leaving the side walk and going more than 10 feet from the door.
There is a chance I may get the garden in early this year but if I put the potatoes in early, early meansm early in , early out, which is not always good.
Now the corn, early in is good.

One month and one day later it is 63 with a high of 79 forecast .
Sunny with just a slight breeze outside.
I will rake the evergreen cones off of the lawn for a second time but will probably die of heat stroke in this heat wave.
Holiday season is over till 4th of July (I no longer count Memorial Day after they moved it) so gardening and house work will take up activities till then.

45 degrees with pissy rain.
It is supposed to be this way tomorrow also.
With night time temps in the 20s possible in a few days roses will remain covered but tulips are up, although they look like some one walked through them, and iris are sending up new leaves.
Grass is greening and I probably should put down weed and feed on the lawn.;

We've had badly needed rain for the last three days and very thankful for it .There has already been fires in our area as we didn't have much snow and no rain until now. Possibility of snow for three days next week which isn't as exciting even though the moisture is still good. My plant room is full of plants and I was hoping it would be warm enough to put the pansy's out to harden off so I could start some more things that I still need to start. Windows are full also so I'm going to have to get creative to find a way to start stuff.

Ah, you are in true Northern Minn.

I spent two years in college in Bemidji, and cold up there has a different meaning from even as far north as Walker.
I have not been that far North in decades now though I was within 40 miles of Bemidji several times in the past 15 years.

We needed the rain, too - but I'm more than ready for it to stop now! I'm so impatient to start doing something in the garden, what with our snow all being gone, even though normally I would just be impatiently waiting for the snow to leave and the ground to thaw. Nice to have an early spring here for a change

@RpR I"m about 15 miles west and 10 miles north of Bemidji and yes it can get very cold here. You are sure welcome to come see the gardens if you get up this way.

Sandy, that is the only thing about when the snow melts early, and there are a few nice days, it's hard when it gets cold again and you can't be out. I am so anxious to get out in the garden too.

30 degrees with snow on the ground.
Water barrel froze and the ice has a snow cap.

Drizzling now with a strong breeze and snow is going away.

Any of you who got snow recently have my sympathies! Not that it would be so unheard of in mid April, but I feel like we're kind of on a roll with spring and I don't want any setbacks... happy that our week or so of rain has finally ended and supposed to have at least that with dry weather coming up.

We just stopped snowing about a half hour ago. I think we probably got 5 or 6 inches. It started to melt as soon as it quit snowing so I don't think it will last long. It covered all my bulbs that were up and all of the plants that were up so we'll see if they were damaged when the snow goes. It's suppose to get up to the 40's Thursday but still 20's at night.

32 for the high and low today, light snow started around 11, changed to ice pellets for a long period, than back to light snow, no accumulation.

41 at this moment, with a brief warm up for tomorrow, than back below average with the warm up for next week after the last throwing of the the bones, will be five or more less than the bones said yesterday, barely above average.

Going out to put down some weed and feed but being a stubborn German I am still wearing cut-off blue jeans but with a warm vest.
Should get the onions in but with 20s highly probable not a good idea.

I have four new roses heeled in in a large ex-tree tub, and have been going out around 11 to midnight and pour several gallons of very warm water in it and then covering with a old comforter.
Fortunately the tub drains well.

There was what I assume to be white pollen in the air here today...

Well the throwing of the bones forecast says Saturday should be the last day with freezing temperatures at night so next week , although highs are lower that predicted a few days ago, temperatures should be fine to start turning over the garden and uncovering the roses.

At noon it was 59 degrees and may hit sixty today.
I will not have to go out at night a pour warm water over my heeled in roses hopefully but they seem to be doing just fine as is.

In the "you learn something new every day" category -

I've been here in the UP since 1971 and have never known how to pronounce "Seul Choix," a point on Lake Michigan where there is a historic lighthouse. Just found out that the "locals" pronounce it "sis-shwa," while the French pronunciation is "sel-shwa." Maybe some of the Canadians here (or anyone else) would care to chime in on this?

I obviously do not qualify as a local (and neither does my husband, who was born and raised in the UP), as in my mind it's always been more like "seal-choy"

I put my hummingbird feeders out yesterday - today I saw our first hummer of the season, a female

It was down in the Twenties last night and Thirties are forecast for tonight.
Brought plants we bought on Sunday in and covered all of the flowers now outside.

Started prepping the North vegetable garden for tilling, gave it a sharp edge by cutting out Quack and June grasses along the edge.
Will spread compost over part of it and till it in and maybe put potatoes in today.

Lost four roses last winter; two I wondered about last summer as they were new and did not really flourish but one that grew and flowered like gangbusters also died and that is a total mystery as it was not that cold last winter, they were covered well and not uncovered early.
Makes me anxious about the large number I planted down South which I have not uncovered yet.

I think my gardening is going to begin in earnest tomorrow - the low tonight is supposed to be 38°F but then it looks like everything will be in the 40s and 50s (with 50s and 60s for high temps, and quite a few days in a row at least partly sunny. Perfect for getting some work done outside!

My first black fly bite of the season today - I'm thankful it was on my arm and not my eyelid!

Went home and put in my South garden & roses.

Took me two days to uncover and plant new roses but then I am so out of shape and did not work at a steady pace while at the same time due to the way I covered the roses, it was far more time consuming plus I had to first plant the potatoes so I could cover them with leaves from the roses, along with I had to take the leaves one wheel-barrow at a time thirty feet over to the potatoes.
I did not enjoy it and pretty much forced myself to put the garden in this year.
Thank God I tilled the garden the day before it rained as working in the very wet gumbo was annoying at best.

I only put in approx. 50 potato plants down South which is about two-thirds of the amount I put in the past five years but I still put in another twenty plants or so up North.

I bought all kinds of new corn varieties this year but ended up putting in more old varieties out of the freezer than new stuff.