March 7, 2015
Martha O'Kennon
Last year my first blog started in June, right after the toad invasion.
After the winter we have had, there's no way I will agree to wait any longer.
So the uniting element of the following pictures is: we had winter, we survived, and there are signs of spring.
People have heard cats working on the first crop of kittens. Someone saw a robin. I had a mosquito in my bedroom last week.
Buds are starting to swell a little on some small bushes and probably on trees.
Usually I go out to the eastern side of the yard and digging under the snow there will be snowdrops blooming.
This year I'm not even sure where those snowdrops might be - the new workshop may be sitting on them. Sigh.
Anyway, here is the first batch of photos.
Click on any picture to enlarge it. Click again to REALLY enlarge it.
A few days ago we had an amazing ice storm. For several days every level field or yard seemed to have acquired an ice-skating rink. It looks as if the Zamboni just recently had swept it smooth. Here's my usual short cut through the college's spare property. Next picture: walking home from a dinner at Baldwin Hall in the dark I had to cross this ice lake on foot.
For several days, I have been slipping and sliding out to the pond to try to top up the water level, which had gone down drastically, using gallon jugs of tap water. I guess the people who say the snow turns straight to water vapor instead of adding liquid to the level were right. A couple of days ago my neighbor helped me get the water hose dug out so that i could hang it through bushes and over the gate so it could thaw out. Today I finally got the hose attached to the house and turned on the tap. Having a black hose didn't hurt either. The farther view shows the woodshop encroaching and the garden glider covered with a tarp.
Last but not least, the deck is beginning to melt too. Actually I've been able (except for the three weeks that the flu flattened me) to sweep a path from the back door to the shop from the other end of the deck.
Yes, this is the usual order of things in the winter, so don't call the white gloves ladies.
The potted dogwood on the deck is budding out nicely. And look in the euonymus at the front door: a yellow praying mantis!
Around the mantis you can see last year's red seeds and the remains of last year's red flower buds.
This is the tree that blooms in the fall and matches the red gables of the house. Maybe you can see some buds there too.
On to March 12
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