a walk in the woods

early spring is a good time for such a walk. plants and trees are growing and in bloom but pesky black flies and mosquitoes are not yet out. but this spring has been an odd one. my walk today proved that. the insects are indeed not out. but neither are the wildflowers - trillium, lady slippers, canada lily, wild oats. the most impressive thing i saw on my walk was the creek coursing down the hillside - and this very rotten tree trunk.

a bloomin' shame

smack in the middle of the vegetable garden the first of the daffodils are almost ready to bloom. but these are old bulbs, the ones that have been coming back every april for years. and what of the new bulbs, those planted last fall? the fifty plus jonquils and daffodils scattered at the base of trees and in front of rock walls? thin green spiky leaves are all thats showing. i am not holding out hope for any buds there. what a pity. theyre not even remarkable enough for a photo.

leftovers

the bird feeders have come down for the season. if theyre left out thin and hungry bears will raid them looking for food after a long winters nap. in the process they could destroy not only the feeders but the poles theyre on and quite possibly the trees theyre near. all that and be really close to the house. its not worth the gamble to feed birds through spring. so when this suet cake is gone its gone. and this woodpecker may be the one to get the last of it.

crabapple tree

the day following the wedding last fall s&s planted their crabapple in the yard. since they dont live here ive felt somewhat responsible for its care. when it was planted it was october so the tree was of course headed into dormancy. in winter the apples coated with ice and eventually shriveled up. one day in spring robins made a meal of them. but at no time since it was planted has there been any overt indication that the tree was either alive or dead. until now. buds are starting to swell and leaves are just beginning to appear. i cant wait to see how it finally flowers.

the last of the snow

this is the spot in the yard that never gets sun. so its the last place for the snow to melt. in other years i have shoveled this particular area bare and tossed the snow into the street to hasten its departure. but this year natures doing the trick. with the temperatures weve been having im guessing this patch will be gone by mid afternoon. goodbye winter.

sweep!

in a three game series the red sox have swept the yankees. to sweeten the wins last nights game featured an incredible sequence of four home runs in a row. how euphoric is that.

jeepers creepers - peepers!!

the penultimate sign of spring - peepers! small frogs that reappear in the spring after a winter of hibernation under bark or logs. they lay eggs now and their mating call is at times deafening. and although ive been listening all week long tonight was the first time i heard them. play the movie. not much to look at certainly - but just listen!!

local color

finally the hardware store in town has pansies for sale. rows and rows of these sunny little multicolored faces waiting to be bought and taken home and planted in pots. so i did.

nuthatch

its not too often that this little guy sits like this. normally hes hopping up and down on the branches of the lilac sometimes upside down. he flits to the evergreen and back time after time. but this morning he just sat very quietly on the trunk for a few moments. just looking here and there taking in the sights and sounds of a warm spring morning.

more water

recent rains have left water where there previously was none. across the roads. in the woods. running down hillsides. look carefully and youll see the image of the kitchen window wreath and all reflected here in the lawn.

virginia

so hard to blog tonight about the trivial and mundane - weather, spring, the cat - when such tragedy has taken place on a college campus. i think of my own students the same age as those dead. promising bright happy lives cut short in such a swift senseless brutal act. and a dark mind so disturbed with an intent that will never be understood. never. i wonder - did teachers notice him when he was a little boy? did they listen to him and ask questions? were they gentle with him? did someone bring joy to his life? make him smile and laugh? dealing with students of all ages i pray that i have the good sense and the skills and that i make the time to try in some small way to touch the lives of those kids i meet.

water water everywhere

not an out of focus picture. just blurred by torrential rain thats all. the storm continued all day and created streams in streets downed branches covering roads and gales that whipped the tops of tall pines. the big army trenchcoat and my sturdiest umbrella were no match for the elements and around mid day i finally gave up trying to stay dry. tonight the rain has diminished and the air is finally still. a peaceful night for rest following a sleepless one with howling wind and pounding sleet all through the night.

nor'easter

what a difference a day makes. and even the few hours since i took this shot of the blueberry bushes covered with snow from our third winter storm this month. tonight the wind has picked up and as i write the sleet starts to batter the nearby window. the lilacs are so laden with heavy snow i worry that limbs may snap from the weight and the wind. its turning into one of those nights thats not fit for man nor beast. a tea by the fireplace in your coziest slippers kind of night. in mid-april. imagine that.

beginning to bud

i dont know what sort of tree this is. a maple perhaps. its pretty nondescript in summer. just a nice green leafy tree. but springtime brings a special distinction. every year its one of the first around to show any signs of new growth. and there it is. see those tiny stamens? those little anthers? this tree will soon flower and then leaf out. first in the area to hint at summer.

quote

"like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." -kurt vonnegut (1922-2007). so it goes.

the ride home

they let us go home early. the afternoon stretches ahead of me. i do believe ill take a nap. its that kind of day.

take warning, sailors

red sun in morning, sailors take warning,
red sun at night, sailor's delight.
nothing looks delightful about this sunrise. another winter storm, headed to new england. should be here in a few hours. doesnt anyone remember that its supposed to be spring by now?

surprises in the compost

every spring something suddenly pops out growing in the compost pile. a volunteer if you will. some potted something that was tossed there after its flower went by and its leaves died back. one of those spring bulbs thats not supposed to come back because its been forced. yet there it is the next year. once it was a tulip. last year it was tiny little daffodils. and this year its this hyacinth. i know it will flower white and have a heady fragrance. i remember it well from last spring.

jellybean monday

today is jellybean monday, the day after easter sunday....so named because of the sugar content in the girl and other small folk on this day. granted that was a long time ago but isn't it a good name still? from the aforementioned girl we have black jellybeans my favorite. licorice flavor - the only ones ill eat. and part of the appeal is that my tongue gets all black when i do. wouldn't that have made an interesting photo!

easter sunday

the balloon says it all!!
happy easter!

holy saturday

tomorrow is easter. more importantly tonight is the night before easter. and on this night something magical happens. every year in the middle of the night an easter balloon mysteriously appears tied to my car. and always with a few carrots dangling from the end of the ribbon. i have tried my best to find out the identity of this "bunny". ive asked friends and neighbors. ive actually accused people. ive stayed up late. ive checked for footprints in the snow. one year i sat at the window all night and got up only once - and just for a minute - and when i came back the balloon was there. this balloon has appeared every night before easter year after year after year for at least twenty years now. maybe more. oh except for the year i was staying at a small inn in the english countryside on easter. then the balloon was delivered to my table at easter brunch!! truly! so tonight i wait, certain that in the morning my easter gift will be there. well, pretty sure it will be there. i think it will. i hope...

#11

the unanticipated photo op. flocks of robins have been around the crabapple all morning long.

the unexpected snow day

the top 10 things i love about this being a snow day:
#10: the excitement in my colleagues voice when she called at 5:30
#9: sleeping in
#8: no meetings
#7: nothing planned and all sorts of extra time
#6: the second cup of coffee - and maybe a third
#5: pjs and no make-up
#4: music all day instead of just in the car
#3: the anticipation of a nap on the couch
#2: time to read my novel
#1: being able to watch dice-k make his pitching debut at 2pm

evening song

last night i went out at dusk and listened to something i haven't heard since last fall. something that only happens when the weather is warm. birds high up in the pines were singing before they settled down for the night. quiet lazy calls to each other that echo and diminish and finally stop for the night. heres the video so you can hear. i hope.

keeping the home fries burning

sorry. i couldnt resist. fyi: ive been trying to upload that video and i still cant do it. i will persist. in the meantime we may all have to be content with still photos. and really bad puns.

oh phooey

so here i am about ready to branch out and expand my horizons (and yours) and upload not a photo but a video! or at least try to. i took one this evening and was looking forward to sharing. but the site is down and i cant upload the video. perhaps those are the ups and downs of blogging.

opening day

today baseball season begins. this years schedule stretches endlessly through spring then summer and into fall. today is much like new years day - or the first day of school - or the day after your birthday. only better. its a day filled with so much hope, so much promise for the future. play ball.

under the leaves

found as i scraped away dead leaves and other matter from a section of my garden. what are these tiny green sprouts you ask? theyre chives! some warm night next week ill snip a little and use them to make hamburgers on the grill.

powerless

boy i would have made a lousy pioneer. sometime in the night the top of a big tree near by snapped off in the wind and took down the wire for the entire road. so this morning there was no water to make coffee, no land line to check for messages, no internet or email, no water for a shower. and to make matters worse i had a severe case of bedhead. thankfully i had the crank radio for news and my cell phone to call and explain my tardiness. dunkin donuts coffee not too far away. but my hair looked wretched all day long. no wonder pioneer ladies wore those silly bonnets.

re: the tree

perhaps its wishful thinking. maybe im looking for a silver lining. could be its my imagination. but i dont ever remember seeing morning light flooding in the window quite like this.

gone

going, going....

i am so sad about this i cant even blog about it. maybe tomorrow.

sugar snow

warm enough today to forego the boots and wear sneakers. tomorrow will be warmer still. but tonight we have snow. sugar snow they call it. the term has something to do with cold-enough-to-snow weather embedded within a warm spell and how it prolongs the maple sugaring season already begun here in new england. i dont understand the science of it all. i just know that, even if it is a late winter snow, i still love to look at it. and that it will melt away as quickly as it arrived.

whats in a name?

how will i want this soon-to-be-born little one to address me? "chris" would be fine with me but i doubt the parents would allow it. so what else....
grandmother. thats so fussy. it makes me think of a matron with grey hair piled atop her head and glasses on a chain. oh wait. that could be me...
grandma. the ma syllable would grate on me every time i heard it. i think its the open vowel sound at the end that i dont like. sounds like sheep.
granny. too beverly hillbillies.
nana. just sounds old. besides nana was the dog in the darlings nursery in peter pan, remember?
gram. a unit of weight. best not to set up any mathematical confusion for the poor child.
mimi or meme or mamy or some other m name. knowing that this sound is acquired pretty early in a babys linguistic development makes these names appealing. but mimi is what my own mother is called. as for meme - im not even french.
grammy. like the best song award. or is it grammie? either way i think this may be it. not because i love the name or anything. but because i remember my own grammie who was always happy to see me who bought me presents when we went to boston who used to brush my hair til it was shiny and there were no more joe moes in it. she was the kind of grandmother who elicited smiles and made good memories. thats the kind of grammie i want to be.

spring in my step

the first day of spring and look what i found sticking out through the snow on my late afternoon walk!

sore throat

sort of sick for a couple of days now. at least im sure im miserable. sleeping hours on end. at the moment im kind of in awake mode so heres my 10pm dinner. tea and a one point 100 calorie thomas' english muffin. thank goodness this thing has nooks and crannies to hold the five sprays of fake butter spray.

st pats

no wearin' of the green today. no corned beef and cabbage or green beer. my nod to st patricks day - i had a granny smith apple instead of a fuji.

taking a chance on jewelry

always i wear the same earrings. little pearl studs. but today i threw caution to the wind and wore dangles. and no one even noticed.

a tough decision to make

somewhere i read that when a house was built in early new england two trees were planted in front to signify the start of a family. once there were two maples here. but a quarter century ago someone took down one that was dead. for years now its twin has been dying too. but still it stands looming tall over the house over the yard and over the hills out back. in summer it leafs out in spots and shades the house for a few morning hours. robins nest in the long branches over the roof. and birds sing from the leafless spire at the top. in winter a family of squirrels lives in the hollow trunk. in spring the lawn is littered with dead branches fallen down with the wind and the snow. when storms rage and wind whips around i fear falling branches will smash through the roof or a window. during thunderstorms i sit in far corners not wanting to be in the center of the house lest the tree get struck by lightning and come crashing down on it and on me. ive had nightmares about this tree. for as long as ive lived here ive both adored and feared it. now a decision needs to be made about taking the tree down. soon. and i cant decide.

small town voting day

the second tuesday in march folks in our small town go to the polls and vote on issues of local importance. who our selectmen will be. whether the fire department will get their new engine. if the teachers will get a salary increase. how much the town will raise through taxation for summer road repairs. theres a familiar pattern to voting in our small town. we gather in the old meeting house now open only for elections. the giant woodstove warms us as we wait in line and climb the few steps to the ancient stage where the voting booths are set. the same faces year after year ask us to state our names when they know full well who we all are. we wave across the room to neighbors. marvel at how much children have grown. have long conversations by the doorway. buy cookies and fudge and baked beans to benefit the local scholarship fund. sit in the pews and discuss weather and politics and whos already tapping their maples. when its finally time to go we negotiate our way through the driveway now rutted and muddied by the wheels of hundreds of cars. drive past the placards stuck in the snowbanks. a final wave to the candidate whos still shaking hands and smiling as evening comes.

rocks

in baskets and in bowls, on sills and on desks, i have rocks. rocks from beaches, rocks from gardens, rocks from other peoples trips. rocks worn smooth by water long gone. rocks jagged and sharp and shaped like hearts. a rock from the ancestral home in ireland. another from a volcano. salt from the great salt lake. and a long succession of duxbury rocks. heres my most recent acquisition - found just this morning right by my foot in the driveway. sparkly quartz among the gravel.

7:47 am & all set

look. its the clock in the car. all set for daylight savings time tonight. because i never turned it back in october. why bother? with the early arrival of DST this year it only amounted to a few months time. id drive, glancing at the clock, subtracting the hour in my mind, imagine the sunlight in spring, and dreaming the winter away. i am so ready for the extra hour of daylight.

noontime ambivalence

driving down a back road i smelled it before i saw it. and there it was: a dead-by-the-side-of-the-road skunk. while i am certainly not a fan of roadkill (i brake for small animals) i was oddly encouraged to see this sight. to be dead-by-the-side-of-the-road, this skunk had to first have woken from hibernation. and that i believe would be sign of spring #5.

twilight

the western sky as i was leaving work tonight. hours of light are getting longer and longer. with daylight savings time returning this weekend it will be curious to have skies look like this at a later hour. its not even yet the vernal equinox, the day of equal daylight and darkness. imagine after that event that days will grow longer still.

snowman

even though weve had only two big storms this year theres a lot of snow out there. apparently some ambitious folk in the area have been taking advantage of that fact and competing to see who can build the biggest snowman. i dont imagine this ones in the running but it is quite tall and very cute. it made me smile all the way to work this frosty morning.

toasty tootsies

on a bitterly cold night such as this i have found the best place for my cold feet. the rest of me is rocking, right in front of the fire.

home fires burning

for reasons that are too uninteresting to even go into, the woodstove has been out of commission for about six weeks now. and sad to say several hundred dollars in conventional fuel. but today i came home to the familiar smell of woodsmoke in the yard. im happy. and the cat is cozy on the hearth once more.

flowers in winter

in winter some people spend their money on skiing and lift tickets. others buy movies or games to play inside. i buy flowers. my need for them is directly proportional to the weather outside. the colder it gets the more it snows the more i need to buy myself some flowers. theyre very much out of place with the gardens and the walkways covered in white. its odd to be handing them while wearing fleece and flannel and heavy socks. but when theyre arranged, when theyre in a beautiful vase, when i can inhale their headiness as i pass by, winter seems very far away even though its raging right outside my window.

same spot different day

see what i mean? i love snowstorms!

the bane of the season

the worst thing about winter: dirty snow.
the best thing about winter: new snow that covers over the dirty snow and make the world look pretty and clean again. until april. then youre just stuck with dirty snow until it melts into mud. but by that time you dont care any more because its spring.