A Watched Leaf Never Unfurls

28 April 2012
9:39 PM

Sunrise at	5:26 AM	in direction	52°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:13 PM	in direction	309°	Northwest

Duration of day: 16 hours, 46 minutes (6 minutes, 58 seconds longer than yesterday)

The consensus among my family is that leaf out will occur within the next two days.  My daughter, who is leaving for a conference in Washington, DC,  tomorrow will return Thursday to green trees.  That is the consensus and we all know that we are never, ever wrong about these things.

However, since yesterday, I have watched the unfurling of the leaves in my yard at regular 5 minute intervals and I confess I see nothing different.  Well, that is not entirely true, I did notice today that there was a green shoot of shrub erupting near the base of one of the trees in circular drive.  And when I looked at the pussy willows, I saw green replacing the fuzz.  And I noticed some green plants beginning to germinate along the warm sections of soil where there are no leaves keeping it moist and cool.  And the grass is already starting to grow and green around the garden by the front steps .. the one that had shoveled snow piled nearly to the bottom of the deck (photo posted March 11).  And the piles of snow that were bladed off our road and driveway (photo posted April 6) are entirely and completely gone and have been for nearly a week.

I remember posting just a few days ago that I wondered when the tripod for the Nenana Ice Classic would go out.  It already had last Monday, April 23 at 7:39 PM (The 4th earliest posting since the event started).  The above link is nearly live and you can see that the trees and shrubs are on the verge, but not quite there.  So, things are changing, but not the Big Change ... the big display we are all waiting for when the trees signal that it's time photosynthesize like mad for the next five months.

I need a camera.