“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
—Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Jill sent me the wonderful Dickens quote. I just love it. I’ve probably read it to myself a dozen times and I’ve read it to anyone else who would listen including Granny.
I took Granny for a doctor’s appointment earlier this week. The March wind was really blowing cold as I pushed her through the parking lot to the the building. I was trying to hurry along because she gets cold so easily and once she is chilled she has a hard time warming back up. I was in such a hurry a dear man stopped his car and got out to ask me if I needed help. I assured him we were fine and thanked him for his kindness in checking on us.
As we drove home we marveled over how warm it looked outside the car windows with daffodils and spring blooms on trees dotting the landscape with color.
Once we got stopped I read Granny the quote. She agreed with me that it fits March weather better than anything we’ve ever heard.
Last night’s video: Starting Tomatoes & Laying by the Cabbage.
Tipper
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March….”In like a lion, out like a lamb”. That’s what we are having here in south east Pennsylvania. Have been watching you plant your cabbage and am so impatient to start our little garden.
I love the quote, Tipper, thank you. The coldness of my climate really isn’t my favourite thing, but it does indeed feel like summer in the sun these days. The air feels thicker, like I can feel the summer in it, even if all the trees and shrubs are still brown and the ground barely workable. I know it’ll be better soon and it’ll be great. I hope Granny’s appointment was okay, I think of her health often.
One of my neighborhood families swears drinking buttermilk is a good home cure for a stomach virus. I have heard anything with bacteria in it such as sourdough bread is good. I can’t say, I have tried and tried to drink buttermilk but have never been able to drink it and eating sourdough bread made me throw up worse. Some of the old folks would drink homemade blackberry wine if they could get some.
I saw that Dickens quote yesterday. Yesterday also happened to be my brothers (twins) birthday. They were as different in temperament, appearance and behavior as the weather Dickens described.
James turned 92; John passed away 3 years ago last August.
Yes ! That describes March beautifully /perfectly! Even here in California:)
Love to you all ! Happy Spring !
I LOVE this quote! Just yesterday, my husband and I were walking around our property and he said, I can’t wait until the wind doesn’t blow cold anymore. This is an absolutely perfect description for March! Thank you, Tipper.
I love the quote, had not heard it before now. Very true indeed here in East Tennessee it was near 75 degrees Wednesday and in 40s Thursday, I heard one weatherman say go from sunburns to snowflakes.
No truer words ever spoken for our unpredictable month of March.
Rhonda, I will be praying for your area. So thankful your home was safe. So sorry for the others.
Tipper, there is a nasty virus going around and I pray the ones that have it are feeling better and prayers for the rest of your family that no one else gets it.
Looking at snow on the daffodils this morning. Dickens hit the nail on the head with this quote!
This is a wonderful quote—absolutely fitting for today!!!! Here in central Georgia, the wind whipped all day yesterday and into the wee hours of the morning—I was so afraid frost would ruin my hydrangea bush and my roses—I haven’t yet made it outside to see how they fared, but it is what it is—I should have covered them but I forgot to do it before it got dark and the wind would probably have blown any covering off anyway. My granddaddy had all kinds of old buckets and even cardboard boxes he would use to protect his plants from frost—he was so diligent when it came to working in his yard and garden—most days he worked outside from morning to night. My husband said the low would not reach freezing so I am hoping my already budding bushes weren’t harmed…hope it will warm up today and not get as cold tonight!!! Happy weekend my friends!!!!!
The perfect quote for our March here too on west coast of B.C. Canada! We even have frost this morning and some areas not further north getting some snow making the ski hills very happy. But there remain many hardy flowers bringing color to winters gray colors. A blessing filled day to you all Tipper! May health return to all who are ailing.
Dickens beautifully and concisely described what we’ve all experienced, especially in March. I’d never seen it before but I like it.
It was in 70s in Richmond, Virginia yesterday and it will be in the 60s today. We had some hard rain yesterday evening to usher in the cold front. Everything is blooming, but I know we will have more frost.
Perfect quote for March. I’ve always heard the Carolinas were the only states that have all four seasons in one day. From what I hear from my siblings in other states that weather trend seems to be catching on in their states too.
I spent my first half century in North Carolina and have spent a third of one in Texas. I think that statement about having all four seasons in one day is more appropriately said of Texas weather. I once went to the grocery store 4 miles away in shorts, t-shirt and sandals and came home in a blowing snow.
I lilke this quote. I am going to write it out on my kitchen window.
Yep. Mr.Dickens said it very well. I like the scale of it especially, the sudden change in a few feet from sun to shade. I think I posted this before but anyway – it seems March just has to have all the weather of the year squeezed into it. So, whatever happens we can just say, “That’s March!” Plant cool season things in the sunny days then worry the other days that you were too soon. On a somewhat related item, I am puzzling this morning over the difference between a “frost advisory” and a “freeze warning”. We have a frost advisory this morning but the dew point near daylight was 27°F and the air temperature was 33°F. So where would frost come from? That situation has been common this entire winter – below freezing but no frost. Then we get the ” freeze warnings” which are not about frost at all. I’m thinking this must be about plant cells freezing and killing the cells which would happen with or without frost. I feel like I should know about this but am not settled about it.
Cold air, being a sinking thing, tends to build from the ground up. So the ground beneath and air above this layer may be higher than the freezing point of water droplets suspended in it. But that bottom layer may be below 32°F causing the water droplets to freeze and crystalize on grass, windshields, rooftops, etc. Most people don’t have a temperature probe in the ground, in fact most thermometers are placed at eyelevel and above. This layering effect only happens when there isn’t sufficient wind to keep layers from forming.
A freeze warning, to my understanding, is when the air will be cold enough for long enough that the ground begins to freeze far enough down that plant roots and waterpipes, etc. are affected.
That’s my theory anyway.
Maybe I should give Dickens another chance. I remember thinking in school that he just wasn’t for me. One thing that these bright, bright sunshiny days with cold winds are good for is car naps. Park in a sunny spot and let the heat from the sun through the windshield warm you to the bone. I’ve got to ask- has it seemed to anyone else that the forsythia and flowering quince are especially glorious this year? I keep marveling at how they are full of blooms and so vibrant!
One day last week, my favorite YouTube weatherman predicted we would experience all four seasons within twenty-four hours. That’s March, for y’all.
I thought I would freeze to death yesterday on the way to my Doctor’s appointment. My wife kept wanting to turn off the heater in the car. Turns out I had a fever and Covid. That’s bad enough but even with insurance the medicine cost us almost $800.
Jackie-I hope you feel better soon!!
I love this quote and I love March. I am gonna write it down so I can read it over and over. It rings true to my part of West Virginia. Wednesday, we were playing outside with the grandchildren…all wearing t shirts. Thursday, I had to take my mama to the dentist and my car thermometer said 28 degrees. It was a blustery and rainy day. This morning, I woke up to a skiff of snow covering the ground and trees. It’s 30 with a high of 47 later on. Every day is a sweet surprise in March. Your garden is looking good with your cabbage all planted. I hope all the folks in your family that were feeling under the weather are feeling better today.
I love Charles Dickens quote which is descriptive of this time of the year. We had near 80 temps last week and chilly 40s-60s this week. It was 35 when I got out of bed this morning around 6 am. My daffodils and hyacinth have been blooming for a couple of weeks and this week one of my weeping cherry trees has light pink blooms, the red buds are starting to open up and the forsythia. I have a weeping cherry tree ready to show its darker pink blooms soon. It is gorgeous when it blooms. The dogwoods aren’t’ too far behind. I pruned some trees, bushes and the grapevines about three or four weeks ago.
An excellent quote. It’s like that here in California too. It’s been in the 70s this week and warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. Not to mention the chilly wind.
Is it the swaying of the trees that fans the wind to blow,
or the rushing wind that causes trees to oscillate so?
How can we really know?
How do we even know that the wind is there? It can’t be seen. It can’t be heard, unless obstructed. It has no smell or taste aside from things carried along within it. Wind can really only be felt.
perfect for yesterday’s weather
Great quotation. I went to a luncheon yesterday in Morganton, NC. It was sponsored by Friends of the Library and the speaker was Sarah Loudin Thomas. Sarah is an acquaintance, she is friends with my daughter and she is just the sweetest soul. As she was speaking , I thought about you and all the folks who comment on this blog. Her books are always set in Appalachia and her latest was called “These Tangled Threads”, which is set in Asheville when the 1916 flood happened. If you haven’t read it, and I realize how busy everyone is, it is well worth the time. Anyway….her next book is out in July and she gave a short glimpse into it. Here is my question for you and your readers….did you know that during WWll, Hot Springs, NC was used as an internment camp for Germans? I thought since Matt grew up in Canton, he might know about it. The story sounded interesting.
Yeah…yesterday was the first day of Spring and March certainly lived up to reputation about wind. It wasn’t cold to begin the day, but by late afternoon the wind would cut you to the bone!
Have a wonderful to all.
Frieda-I have one of her books in my pile of books to read, now I’ll have to move it up to the top so I can read it sooner 🙂 I did not know about the camp.
Tipper, if it hadn’t been for Sarah Loudin Thomas I wouldn’t have known about your blog. She mentioned it in one of her newsletters. 🙂 And Frieda is right about her books. They are wonderful. I have her next one on pre-order.
Regina S.-how wonderful!
Freida–While there were a goodly number of various types of “camps” (a nice way of describing what was in essence a prison) in N. C. in WWII, I’m pretty sure the one at Hot Spring was from WWI. There was one in Montreat in WWII, and although I’ve never been able to confirm it, my father often said there was one between Bryson City and Sylva in WWII.
I might note your post has also cost me money, because I’ll have to have a book or two from Sarah Loudin Thomas. Just as the gravestone of a fellow I knew reads “He was bad to fish,” I reckon it’s fair to say “I’m bad to buy books.” Still, in this case I’ll gladly pay the freight.
What a perfect quote for fickle March. We had one day last week that was 70 degrees. It felt wonderful, but here in New England you know it can at the drop of a hat. Today is blustery, which means when my husband and I go for a walk, I’ll be putting on the winter hat again. Fickle March.
That quote is completely true for Indiana, love it!
Hi Tipper & Denise, same here in St Marys Ohio.. hard frost this morning 28 but supposed to warm to low 50’s today.
That is a perfect description of this time of year.
I love this quote. It accurately explains the spring time weather in my area of Oklahoma. Praise the Lord that He blessed us and kept our home from being one of more than 200 homes destroyed by wildfires here. The fire was with 1/2 mile south, 1 mile west and 1 block east of our home. So sad for the many others left with nothing but ashes to sift through. I kindly ask for prayers for Stillwater and other affected areas of Oklahoma.
I will pray for those victims of the wildfires. Here in the Carolinas we are having a lot of wildfires but none as bad those out West. One has been burning for several weeks at Myrtle Beach, SC. I read yesterday that they now have it pretty much contained. From what I understand, the destruction of the fallen trees from Helene is making it very hard to fight some these fires.
That is a very true quote about March weather, one morning this week we had frost but later on in the same day the temperature was in mid 70’s. This morning it is 35 but no frost because of the wind blowing.