A Walk on the Winter Side

 

Well, really a series of drives and walks. If you don't mind the ice crystals circulating in your blood stream Upstate NY is beautiful in winter.

I am not too chuffed about the two big storms we are supposed to get this week though. Wood pile is getting scanty so we will have to buy in another load...hopefully that works out all right.

Meanwhile, we finally found a few birds yesterday at Lock 12. Winkled one scaup out of a couple hundred Mallards and Black Ducks. I am calling it a lesser as the bill looks thin, but maybe the eBird reviewer will see it otherwise. We shall see.

Otherwise, it is just a sad, stressful season, with little to recommend it beyond the beauty among the snowflakes and the promise of better times to come. I forced myself to throw out some really scraggly geraniums last fall. I compulsively keep plants forever if they are even remotely alive (I have one that is fifty years old that my mother gave me when I still lived at home), but I somehow managed to part with these sad and battered things.

However....there is always a however....I took a cutting from one of the prettier ones, wintered it in a jar on the kitchen windowsill, and potted it up the other day.

And, man, oh, man, did it ever feel good to get my fingers in dirt, even just a little pot full. I always find it hard to believe in winter when the grass is green and the cannas are blooming. Alas it works the other way too, and imagining spring while borrowing the boss's boots to go to the compost bin is a real challenge. I kinda wish my mind worked a little differently

Meanwhile, stay warm friends, stay warm.