Faux Spring January 8, 2012
Posted by indigobunting in Uncategorized.trackback
One day it is suddenly so cold I refuse to leave the house, even to walk to the post office to pick up my mail. The next a warm breeze blows back in, and it feels like late March again, and when I do walk to the post office a cardinal starts to sing, and I think, Do not get your hopes up, dude. Do not get overexcited.
Last weekend our hike was so muddy that we left our boots to freeze dry in the uninsulated mud room. I eventually moved both pair inside to warm for their next trip, a walk on the rail trail yesterday, where I stopped at standing icy puddles and washed the caked mud off mine. The ground is soft. Is it January thaw if, as a friend pointed out, there is very little to thaw?
The soft ground gave like spring. The warm air smelt of it—air warm enough to smell!—the wet of mud, of field manure, of the stream. And then I heard my barred owl, just two days after Tim’s sighting, so now I need only be envious that he saw one.
It’s a good thing Big Year is a collective activity: you don’t seem to be having much luck spotting birds!
Not in the winter! Not without $$!
Oh, and I should possibly consider leaving the house.
Your faux spring? So that’s where my summer has gone. Give it back! (Lali had it first, then loaned it back to me briefly, but now it’s gone again).
You might appreciate this story (it starts at 29:50 minutes): http://castroller.com/Podcasts/CbcRadioVinyl/2310597?start=undefined
You might appreciate this story Indigo (it starts a somewhere around 29:30):
http://castroller.com/Podcasts/CbcRadioVinyl/2310597-May%2014th,%202011%20The%20Bird
That was lovely, H. Thank you!
OK, not really “a somewhere”…
I SO wish I had a mudroom…