Old Man Winter came back for another visit. I had hoped that old coot was vacationing south of the equator, but I guess he really enjoys his stays in my neck of the woods.

Yeah, this winter was long and took quite it's toll from my good moods.
So I am very glad here, that winter seems to have surrendered here in Berlin.
It is still rather cool often, but the sun shines won'fully.
Hold out, MudWasp - it will soon surrender in your woods too!

You two come to Mississippi. Its 85 deg. F. and Spring Time at the Ranch.

MFair, where in Mississippi do you live? My father was from Brookhaven. I've always had a special place in my heart for Mississippi.

Banjoman, I hang my hat in Hattiesburg or just outside of actually. I have kin in Brookhaven. Small world. It is a wonderful place, even if the summers are hot. As Mathew Broderick says in "Biloxi Blues", "This is HOT, This is Africa HOT!"

I know about that heat, I grew up in Orange, Texas right on the Louisiana border and the Gulf coast. I've been to Hattiesburg twice and I really like that town. There was a place that had the best fried catfish I've ever had, but I don't know if they are still in business. If I ever move to Mississippi, it would be Hattiesburg.

Same here MudWasp and still getting it today but only lightly!

MFair, That is an early or mid June pic for this area at best.

Well, I'm under the same system as MudWasp & Robert_Wiggins, but it isn't so bad 'way down here in Pittsburgh. We're supposed to go to 29°F tonight (-2°C give or take), but no snow. The winds have been something else - another tree is down up on the hill. But the crocuses are gone, the hyacinths and dafodils are going, and the tulips are out, so we're a little ahead of MW and RW.

MudWasp, I was nearly in your territory earlier this week, on a trip to Watertown, NY to inspect a broken hydro generator. The Black River in that area is beautiful. And they have plenty of water; the rapids in some places would have been fatal to most, they were that fierce. Such steep sides on that gorge, I don't know if you or anyone here has been in that area, but I found it interesting.

Well, if nothing else, perhaps give thanks that your lawn mowing is delayed a little longer. We'd had a warm spell before this & I had to hurry up and mow before I left to go to Watertown!

Now MFair, that's right pretty, but 85° in April! Yow! I need it a little cooler than that. My sister moved to Central Florida a long time ago. Then about 13 years ago, my wife & I finally got our honeymoon - 27 yrs. late! We went to Grand Cayman, & when I came back from there, I told my sister it was too hot & humid where she lived - she didn't move far enough south! Grand Cayman was paradise-perfect.

Light snow - flurries really - this morning, 25-30 degrees tonight. Grrr...

HumanDrone,It is supposed to be in the 90's Sunday! If my living was not here I would prefer Colorado or Montana but as my old college professor said, "Every thing is a compromise, nothing is the ultimate," which is true. We went from winter to summer here in about 2 weeks. No spring. Yes, the summers are brutal with the humidity. In July and August I can walk out my door at 6:30 in the morning and before I can make the 10 second walk to my truck the perspiration is forming on my forehead! Didn't mind it at all in my younger days but now is a different story.

I've gone hunting and fishing around the Black River area, much like you describe and beautiful too. I bet you passed through my area to get there, I'm in the south west corner of NY, takes about 30 minutes to get to Erie PA to watch the ponies at Presque Isle Downs or vist Presque Isle State Park on the lake and see a pretty sunset.

90's already MFair!

Oh, okay, for some reason I had you in the Adirondacks. Bad recollection of Olham's pilot maps, I guess. Anyway, I didn't pass through your area - I was fortunate (depending on your point of view) to be able to fly that one, Pitt to Philly then up to Watertown on a puddlejumper. Watertown has two flights a day, the same little Dash 8 just plods between Philly & Watertown twice!

Anyway, ages ago, I had a cousin in Jamestown. And if you really head south on 79, just past Grove City, I have a cousin & her husband that own a microbrewery/restaurant in Slippery Rock, PA. Sounds like its about half way between us. Were you in the path of that 7 feet of snow that dumped south of Buffalo last year?

Criminee, we've biked the trail at Presque Isle, even occasionally braved the waters there. We didn't get up there last year, but last year we didn't get anywhere. About all I did was cut trees, split wood, and mow grass.

So we have you a half an hour from Erie; me two hours from Erie, and CatKnight in Cleveland. I don't know how the Wing Commanders feel about it, but it sounds like a recipe for a mini-meet.

Very true on the compromise thing. Colorado is certainly beautiful - I saw my first big cat in the wild up here near Steamboat Springs a couple of years ago. I was on business again, and after dark I drove up into the mountains to loom at the stars, they are just so beautiful at the higher elevations away from the city lights and dust and all that. I saw the cat slinking off to the side of the road on my way back into town - at first I thought it was a Golden Retriever or Yellow Lab, but the slinking motion and tail were unmistakable.

Now I won't say that I dislike Mississippi - I have some great war stories from a coal plant down near the Gulf in Pascagoula - but that heat and humidity, yow!

It looks like you have a nice place there. I have 5.75 acres here, but it's all hill.

HumanDrone, That 7' missed my shack by a good 1/2 drive's distance. It's unpredictable and often random with those lake effect bands, just depends on how the winds set up. Hehe I grew up living in Jamestown, had a few high school classmates head to Slippery Rock for college.

Yeah, a meet up sounds like fun. Should I pack a chainsaw? Or have you tamed your homefront?