Thaw

!Drip!

We are in the midst of a little one and it is truly a delight. Went out yesterday (several times) with no coat. Birds are everywhere; doves hang like delightful diamonds on all the dangly wires and branches. Dozens of gold finches, house finches, juncos and field sparrow (thanks to all who helped us with that identification) white-throated sparrows, and all the other common bird folk chink and cheep and flutter by. The yard is fearfully barren when they leave to glean the fields.

Lines of geese are flying urgently up and down the valley. When geese go somewhere they are very earnest about it, shouting out to one another and stretching their necks out eagerly toward their destination...even when they don't really have one and are just circling the river trying to decide where to land. Alas, the cove across from the house is frozen now, so I can't hear them when I wake up at night. They are all hanging around on the lawn down by the state transportation building instead. These are not migratory geese but rather residents, but they make a warm day feel like spring even though you know it isn't. I stood out in the yard with the dog, yesterday at midday, watching them flow by with the sun on my head and soft air moving slowly across my cheek and just reveled in it. It will get cold again...too soon...but I am going to enjoy this weather for all it is worth.


This is my garden pond (for FC, who has ice too...ice which I envy very much). Those marks are where I tried (and failed) to use my trusty hatchet to chop a place to set the venting heater...guess I waited just a little too long this year....