The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description.
I just flew in from Wyoming and boy, are my... well, my everything is tired, actually.
While St. Louis is settling into more spring-like temperatures, eastern Wyoming is still enjoying an eastern Wyoming spring. That it, there was a light dusting of snow, chilly temperatures, and the standard Wyoming dose of gusting winds. It appears to be a good year for pronghorns, as I saw literally hundreds along the highway south of Gillette. In one field, I could see more than a hundred at one time, spread out along several low rises. Mixed in with them were some knots of mule deer. I saw no elk, though I know they're around.
While I was out there, my mother's house in Greenville, Kentucky was hit by an F2 tornado. She's OK, thank goodness, but the house has seen better days. Damage to the roof, siding, deck, gutters… it's a lengthy list. Mom holed up in the bathroom (the house has no basement) while the tornado roared overhead – something she's not likely to forget any time soon. While I was on a trip to Chicago just over a year ago she was hit by an ice storm that ripped up all the apple trees and did damage to the house. Repairs on that event were only just completed in time for the tornado. Among other items, the spiffy little gazebo that my father built some years back, which was damaged and repaired after the ice storm, was was lifted out of the back yard, carried over the house by the tornado, and dropped into the front yard in the form of a heap of kindling.
The lesson is that 1) I should stop going out of town and 2) my mom needs to move.
Lots of new green popped up around the house in St. Louis while I was away. More dogwoods in the game, persimmon trees showing some green. The daylilies are showing a lot of leaf up on the hillside, spice viburnum has begun to bloom, and on the "moss fall" (a big swatch of ground in which we've dutifully encouraged a blanket of moss and treated grass as a weed) wild violets are running to profusion. May apple has begun to appear, especially down by the stream, though it will be some time before their little umbrellas are at full size.
Much thanks to those who have put up buckets in my absence. Hopefully, I'll now make that "daily" part of the diary name more literal for at least the rest of this week.
What's going on where you live?
![](http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=512x300&maptype=terrain&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:M%7Ccolor:green%7C3490+WEBER+RD,ANTONIA,MO&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:L%7Ccolor:blue%7CNASHVILLE,TN&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:B%7Ccolor:green%7CMADISON,NJ&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:B%7Ccolor:blue%7CBALTIMORE,MD&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:L%7Ccolor:brown%7CTIBERON,CA&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:E%7Ccolor:blue%7CCASTRO+VALLEY,CA&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:M%7Ccolor:green%7CHUDSON+VALLEY,NY&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:M%7Ccolor:brown%7CTALLAHASSEE,FL&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:L%7Ccolor:blue%7CBASTROP,TX&markers=size:mid%7Clabel:D%7Ccolor:blue%7CPORTLAND,OR&sensor=false)
Today's observations come from these locations
Share your own observations in comments, and I'll add a marker to the map. Please give a city and state (as close as you feel comfortable in providing). Green pins for observations mostly about plants, brown for animals, and blue for weather or other inorganic items. The letter at the center of each pin will be the first letter of the user who provides the data.