Happy Groundhog Day. Elsa here. If you believe in the predictions of some chubby Pennsylvanian rodent, looks like that Gobbler Knob resident, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted an early spring this year. While I’m not convinced a groundhog can accurately predict Spring’s arrival, apparently this phenomena has been celebrated for ages. How did this custom originate, you ask? Well, I’m here to give you a bit of background on this silliness annual tradition. Diary records from as early as 1841 entry showed weather forecasts had been celebrated among families of German descent in Pennsylvania though most historians agree the custom began in the late 1800’s. According to Don Yoder, former professor from University of Pennsylvania, he noted a Celtic connection and surmised this annual celebration had its roots in “ancient, undoubtedly prehistoric, weather lore.”
Guess it appears that Celtic people across Europe marked a 4-day period in early February, which is the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Celts observed that Christians celebrated Candlemas (known as Imbolc), which coincided with Joseph and Mary’s presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. As ancient folk observed sun, stars and animal behavior and those observations influenced their farming practices. They came to the conclusion that the emergence of hibernating animals, coincided with seasonal weather forecasts. Similarly, German traditions observed that badgers or bears emerging from hibernation came around the same time as the arrival of spring. Pennsylvania German settlers apparently substituted the groundhog, which was endemic to the eastern and midwestern United States. Guess you use what you got to keep the myth going, eh? Now that you know the background, let’s move on and see what slices of nature arrived in the 303, shall we?
Welcome to the first Friday of February where we join our friends Rosy and Sunny for their Nature Friday blog hop. Be sure to click on the link to see what others have shared.
I dunno about you, but January seemed to go on forever, and makes you wonder why they do Dry January during such a long month? Sorry, I’ve been out of commission lately, I’m recuperating from an injury that required surgery. Normally Mom keeps me buttoned up with a horrid satellite dish (aka cone) but she took that pic after I had eaten breakfast to make it easier on me and removes the cone so I don’t bang on walls while trying to locate my bowl. Man…I can’t wait to burn that thing! I’m not even getting Showtime.
Anyway…this week the weather has been almost spring-like with temps nearly 20F degrees warmer than average for this time of year (hmm, maybe that stupid rodent is on to something). The hyacinths in our garden began to wake up which actually surprised Mom. With the subzero temps in January, she didn’t think they’d wake up yet, but lo and behold…warmer temps seemed to coax these little squirts upward.
Mom also noticed some daffodils were farther along than we thought they should be. Now don’t go crazy…this isn’t some kind of atmospheric miracle, mind you. When you’re at a Mile High elevation-wise, you’re that much closer to the sun and that makes a huge difference over those near sea level.
We’re noticing it’s getting lighter earlier in the morning and some of the recent sunrises have been pretty spectacular. There’s something about winter sunrises that always captivates Mom’s interest. She’s lucky I’m not supposed to walk very fast so she was able to capture this view before the red sky disappeared while waiting on me.
So the integration of the ‘pink-eyed pony’ who’s probably going to be my brother, has been slow going. We still get somewhat bent out of shape especially when I’m too close to my Mom [yo doofus…she was my Mom long before you arrived…so back #@%$ off] but we’re trying our best. Well that’s not 100% accurate…it’s more like Mom is hyper focused on our proximity to avoid any more collisions or unpleasantness.
Last week Wilson went to the groomer after Mom spent 187 hours dematting his fur (trust me, that’s not much of an exaggeration either-that gallon bag was just from his ears and took almost 5 hours). The groomer said Mom made the job easier for her and Wilson was good getting spiffed up. I’ll admit, that boy does clean up nicely.
Sure his fur is shorter than Mom would like, but it will grow out quickly. The groomer only needed to blend the length from where the mats were cut out. I’m just glad I didn’t have to lose any more fur than what the vet shaved off but Mom mentioned something about trimming up my paws. {Gasp} I hope that was just a rhetorical observation and not real. I’m slow moving right now and wouldn’t be able to escape quickly enough. I hate for my feet to be groomed.
So far, I haven’t decided if I’m going to let Wilson appear as a co-host on my Friday posts. The jury is still out on that one. What do you guys think? Should I let him or just keep this gig to myself? Let me know in your comments.
Got anything exciting on your dance card this weekend? We are planning to enjoy the NHL All-Star Game and then prepare for next weekend’s Super Bowl. Can anyone tell me what the dog is all the hubbub about on this whole Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce thing. I mean, why are people so bent out of shape that a very successful musical star supports her boyfriend at his games? I just don’t get it.
Do you believe Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast will bear out? Whatever you do, we hope you are able to enjoy whatever Mother Nature dishes up.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
It sure beats seeing this Silver Maple that didn’t fare nearly as well, with the owners cutting it all the way down. As you can see, the interior is quite hollowed out and even carving probably wouldn’t have made a difference. This is the biggest problem with Silver Maples here and the city has all but declared war on them and having homeowners remove them. Still, we can’t help but mourn the loss of any mature tree.
The orange light was stunning, if I do say so myself. Now if I can just get Mom to get some software to edit out those doggone electric and cable wires. What are you going do with moms some days?
The Mom: Those were fascinating, weren’t they? Did you know those crescent-shaped shadows are the result of various rays of light passing through to the ground. Only some rays at a certain angle can make it through and those that do are little crescent shapes of the eclipse itself as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. These donut-shaped shadows are the result of the “ring of fire” peak during the eclipse. How cool is that?!
Doh-de-do-do…”leaf your worries behind,” I always say, because it’s now October. Oh hi, Elsa here to share some 411 about leaf peeping with scenes from around the ‘Hood and our state. As always, we are joining our pals, 
Good Friday morning and welcome to another edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals 
