Blackberry Winter....Partly cloudy,,, 50's

The Blackberries are blooming...yesterday morning was 48*. 

Looking back through the archives here on my blog I find that I wrote about Blackberry winter in 2015 on May 6th and in 2014 on May 1st and the year before that on May 3rd. You might say you could set your watch (or calendar by it!)

Yes, it happens every year, when you least expect it. The days have turned warm, the Jonquil's, the redbuds and the dogwoods have bloomed ,everything is growing, you have planted your early garden items (and maybe even your Tomatoes and Beans if your feeling particularly confident) , the blackberries are blooming, and then it hits. Winter's last  fling, the cold snap that comes just when you think spring is finally here at long last .
Before there were  long-range weather forecasts...the 'old-timer's' had many signs they went by to predict the weather, some make a lot of sense some are a little more far fetched!
I've been told you could tell if it was going to be an early or late spring depending on when Easter fell each year as "the weather  always 'settles' right after Easter".... interesting since it can fall anywhere from late April to Mid May.
That the first time you hear a whippoorwill holler (they start calling about the time the blackberries bloom too) you're to get down on the floor and roll over so as not to have any back ailments all year long. I must admit I haven't tried this one, perhaps I should!
That you must plant your corn when the oak leaves are as big as a squirrels ear for a good crop (I missed that one this year, as I do most years)!
And that the reason we have blackberry winter is because the blackberries won't set fruit unless there is a cold snap!
If you Google "Blackberry Winter"  you find there have been more than one song written about it both instrumental and with lyrics here's a  snippet of one of my favorites....
"Blackberry winter comes without a warning
Just when you think that spring's around to stay
And you wake up on a cold, rainy morning
And wonder what on earth became of May....."
(music: Alec Wilder; lyrics: Loonis McGloughlin
by Ellen Messina Ciompi. )