During a very animated discussion with PMDude about his love/hate relationship with spiders, I mentioned that I had been told that the massive amounts of spiders that seem to be coveting my apartment as their new home, I was told, means there's a hard winter ahead. (Whew...that's one long run on sentence.) And I should preface the "animated" discussion with the fact that both PMDude and I agree, spiders are not natural. (doing the shivering dance).
So, being that I like to use google, I decided I would "google" - as in the action of googling - spiders and hard winters. Farmer's Almanac, I knew, would not let me down. And so, without any more ado...here are the Top 20 Signs of a Hard Winter.
BTW - I've already notified the pointy haired boss that I don't travel during snow. The stang stays parked.
- Thicker than normal corn husks
- Woodpeckers sharing a tree
- Early arrival of the Snowy Owl
- Early departure of geese and ducks
- Early migration of the Monarch butterfly
- See how high the hornet’s nest, will tell how high the snow will rest
- Unusual abundance of acorns
- Thick hair on the nape of a cow’s neck.
- Early arrival of crickets on the hearth
- Raccoons with thick tails and bright bands
- Pigs gathering sticks - have to live on a farm for that one.
- Insects marching a bee-line rather than meandering.
- Early seclusion of bees within the hive.
- Muskrats burrowing holes high on the riverbank.
- The squirrel gathers nuts earl to fortify for winter.
- Frequent halos or rings around the sun or moon forecasts numerous snows.
- Mice eating ravenously into a home.
- Heavy and numerous fogs in August.
- Spiders spinning larger than normal webs and entering the house in great numbers.
- The wollybear caterpillar - A narrow orange band in the middle of the caterpillar warns of heavy snow; fat and fuzzy caterpillars warns of bitter cold. Also… a rough winter if you see lots of them crawling around, their movement is slow (thought they were always slow?), you saw them crawling before the first frost.
I gotta say, being a city girl 99% of these I'll never actually see to say, "Gee, that means we'll have a hard winter."
Oooo now I have the heebygeebies...
3 comments:
I especially like #6 "See how high the hornet’s nest, will tell how high the snow will rest " Ya-right, as if you would ever do that!
I think you left one out.
"Prolongued periods of extreme cold."
... I'm just saying...
When I first read about the pigs, I pictured them walking on two legs (hind, of course), picking up sticks with their other legs while humming. I need more sleep.
And am I the only person who's NOT afraid of spiders? I swear they smell fear and that's why they never bother me. They never crawl across my ceiling and drop down into my mouth while I'm sleeping. Or crawl up my nose or in my ear.
Hee hee hee. Did you see what I did there? I skeered you more. Hee hee hee.
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