FREEZE WARNING FRIDAY A.M.

A Freeze Warning is in effect for ACA for Friday morning with temps falling into the mid and upper 20s.  If you have some fragile blooming plants around your house, it would be wise to cover them up.

Yesterday I posted a bunch of photos from ACA...and I'm adding one more here from yesterday afternoon.  One normally thinks of a rainbow arcing high in the sky, but a bright one developed below my view from the end of Staymon.

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Rainbow 4-22-15 late afternoon

Bob

SPRING PHOTOS

What a gorgeous day (albeit cool) we had Monday and yesterday!  This view from home at the end of Staymon Road Monday after a stormy start (to follow):

(CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE)

In the pre-dawn hours Monday 4-20, an expansive line of rain and embedded thunderstorms rumbled into western NC.  However, the cloud deck didn't quite cover the eastern horizon, allowing the sun to shine underneath the deck for a very brief time.  The misty orange glow lasted less than 2 minutes, but made for an unusual picture. 

We continue to green mightily in Apple Creek Acres, so posting some of the newer blooms.  So far this month we've had just under 5" of rain, so lush is an understatement!

Carolina Spring Beauty

Squirrel Corn

Chickweed

White varietal of Wake Robin Trillium

Canadian Violet

Large flowering bellwort

Dwarf Larkspur just opening

False Solomon's Seal

Remember all the Asplundh powerline clearing last summer?  Keith Patton smartly had them dump a boatload of the free chips on a needy steep slope just below the upper hairpin curve.  It's now home to a massive mushroom display at the moment!

Bob

FREEZE WARNING TONIGHT

(UPDATE 'the morning after'...!)  Good ol' inversions....as a rule, it's colder the higher up one is, but sometimes it's warmer higher up.  Cold air will sink low at night, and the warmer valley air rises, but sometimes not rising all that much.  And that is exactly what happened this morning.  At 630am, 34 on my elevated deck, 37 on the driveway...and by the time I got to Ingles it was 27 down low.  For all, the bitter cold did NOT manifest, and for that we are thankful, what with all the flowers and buds going gangbusters.

Back in early December, the MOST remarkable inversion I've ever witnessed occurred.  At that 630am or so window, it was 48 at my house at the end of Staymon, and 22 (!!!) at Ingles....that's an inversion of 26 degrees in only a change around 1100-1200 feet in elevation.  Never have I seen such a massive inversion of temps for such a change in elevation!

If you didn't see the prior post to this, check it out for other ACA info.

And to bring back good ol' memories, here is a pic from the end of Staymon on April 7, 2009.  4" of spring snow....  :-/

Bob

NEWS AND INFO UPDATES

March went out like a lamb, but not before two consecutive morning lows of 18 degrees and a fluffy inch of snow the last weekend of March.  :-)  And now the mountainside is greening rather quickly, with a nice display of early season wildflowers showing their stuff.

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Updated entrance

Two of our mountain angels are back...and back at it.  Judy and Irene just finished up refurbishing our entrance, which suffered a good bit of damage this winter.  New posts, new cross pieces, cleaned out beds, and we are good to go!  As you may or may not know, no dues money goes to their appreciated work, so I know they would be thankful for any donations toward their efforts to defray their out-of-pocket expenses.  Ya gotta admit, there is nothing nicer than turning left into our sanctuary and seeing it so inviting and nicely kempt.

Hostas at the entrance lookin' good and strong

I just went out today and was a bit surprised to find a bold display of Trout Lillies still out, joined in with mainly the 'white' group of flowers listed.  Here are just a few to be enjoyed...

Spring Beauty

Trout Lily (Dog-tooth Violet to some)

Bloodroot

Cut-leaved Toothwort

One of the cohoshes

(7pm update) The weather has behaved since that late March cold snap, but another cold front could bring some rumbles of thunder and windier conditions in the mountains overnight through tomorrow morning. There is a tornado watch in TN up to the Haywood border, though.  Biggest concern is fire danger as high winds will be blowing through the day.  We don't need a situation like Black Mountain just went through with a wildfire. 

Now that I'm on the mountain most days, I've joined the CoCoRAHs network, which basically keeps precipitation records reported daily to a national group.  I didn't officially start until March 8, so I missed the first week.  But I got 2.56" of rain (and any snow equivalent in meltwater) for March.  I'll be posting rainfall totals each month in addition to everything else from here on out. 


Bob