80 degrees today – a bit much for this time of year. We’ll have the usual thunderstorms that follow unseasonably hot weather. This is the periwinkle/vinca that is everywhere up in our woods. Those little splashes of purple are the first splashes of color we see in the spring, followed closely by the yellow of the daffodils and forsythia (also in bloom right now.)
We worked very hard in the shed yesterday and it’s much more well organized and a heck of a lot cleaner. I even have my own section for flower pots and garden tools and also a space for potting! More needs to be done in terms of esthetics, but it’s good for now.
The lawnmower and the snow blower always seemed to take up so much space, but after we had organized everything and moved them back into the shed, they looked much smaller. It’s roomy in there!
But, boy, were we pooped! We have to get in shape again.
Nevertheless, it’s very satisfying to have finished a project.
I’m definitely holding off on clearing the garden beds until next week – even though I’d love to do it this week. It’s going down into the thirties for several nights, so those leaves covering the beds need to stay until it gets back up into the forties.
Yesterday evening, a little bit before the sun went down, I heard the Carolina wren and there he/she was, standing in front of the trailer, singing away. He hopped inside, sang a bit, hopped outside, and eventually flew up on the roof. Are they back? Did they never leave? I don’t know, but I sure was encouraged. We heard him again early this morning, when it was still dark. I also heard them in the back forty while we were outside working yesterday – another nest, maybe?
No sign of any groundhogs yet, but I usually don’t see them this early, even though they are no longer hibernating. Chipmunks are everywhere as are the squirrels. There’s a woodpecker up in our trees – I suspect it’s the catalpa – and lots of other calls I can’t identify.
One of my favorite things about spring is the sound of the birds.
Even though I complain about winter, I wouldn’t trade the seasons for anything. I had 8 years of very little in terms of a perceptible seasonal change when I lived in San Diego. It was a welcome relief from New England winters when I first moved there, but after a few years, I tired of it. I was raised in Michigan and spent a total of ten years in Philadelphia and Boston. It’s what I know and what my body needs.
Okay. I’m going to finish this up so I can go back to Last Friends by Jane Gardam. I read a chunk of it this morning. She is such a wonderful writer – I highly recommend her.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
Hi,
Did you get your snow blower fixed? It has snowed everyday this week. I am determined not to snow blow, thus, I am shoveling…probably 12 to 14 inches over the week. Not all at once, thankfully.
Take Care,
Kaye
Park City, UT
No. Don didn’t want to deal with it. So I guess we’ll be dealing with it as winter hits us in December.
So sorry you’re getting hit with snow, Kaye! Take care and be careful.
Stay safe.
80 degrees! I am envious. Might get to 60 here today.
I’m so glad your wrens are still around. I spotted 1 bluebird at our feeder but still waiting for any action around the bluebird house.
Take care
It’s too hot and humid.
I hope you see some bluebirds near the house, Marilyn.
Stay safe.
So happy you heard the Wren. I hope they nest again.
Haven’t seen them today. Was he just visiting?
Stay safe, Linda.
One of my favorite things about NYS is the fall,when the colors are so vivid!
Always makes me think this is God’s handiwork.
Yes, autumn in New York is just like in the song – gorgeous!
Stay safe, Pat.
Oh, I loved to see the periwinkle popping through the twigs and dead leaves on the hill behind the kitchen at the lake. Your photo could have been taken at that very place! We’re home from chemo now and it’s feeling like the weekend is starting—yay! Enjoy your summer-like weather today.
Hope Fred is hanging in there with the chemo, Shanna. When will he be finished?
Stay safe.
Well, we don’t know. This is his third round and if it doesn’t work he’ll be referred to the Mayo Clinic for bone marrow transplant therapy. It’s been really hard on him, but he’s still fighting.
i keep praying for you all and everyone else … for good health, peace, easy days, fun … all good things.
hugs (if okay with you) from me here in iowa …
kathy
Hugs are always okay by me, Kathy, and thanks for the prayers.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and Fred, Shanna.
Love,
Claudia
xo 🙏
I decided to listen to the song of the Carolina wren after I read your blog this morning, so I went searching for a recording. Lovely.
Doesn’t it feel wonderful to have that shed job under your belt? It sounds like a lot of work but must be like a brand new space for you! Well done.
Periwinkle is a favorite — definitely an early sign of spring. You’re smart to hold off on the beds. Hopefully it won’t freeze but we weren’t born yesterday and it’s always a possibility.
I hope you can chill out and just relax tonight!
I think it’s going down to 31 one night this weekend, so definitely holding off on the beds!
Thanks, Jeanie.
Stay safe.
No splashes of color here that I have seen. Thru next Wed the highest temp predicted is 48* w overnight temps in the 20’s & 30’s.
Bet you are glad to have the shed straightened! A big job completed. Hope you had a good day. Take care.
Very glad! Once I get the garden and porch ready, I’ll feel quite satisfied. But the shed was a messy thing that needed to be done and it’s done!
Stay safe, Chris.
80 degrees! Even our temps have been up and down. It’s crazy! Doesn’t it feel good to get a chore like the shed done? I am looking at a lot of projects around here that I just can’t get the energy up to do. I have fibromyalgia so every day is a new adventure. Either pain or fatigue and most days both. Oh well, we all have our crosses to bare. I have a lot of petunias in my yard and something is eating them alive! I have tried Neem Oil and it does not seem like it touched it. I may have to go with something stronger, but I hate to use all those chemicals in the yard, especially with our Golden Gracie. I can’t wait to see your yard when everything starts blooming. Spring is coming! Take care!
Sending you healing thoughts, Deb.
Yes I also avoid chemicals. I’ve never used them on my gardens.
Stay safe, Deb!
We went from 80 to snow in two days, typical Spring! So much better than SoCal weather though, at least for me. I was so glad to get back to four actual seasons when we moved out of Orange County!
I hope Mr. Wren and his lady take over the trailer again. Such a delight!
Stay strong.
I haven’e seen him in a couple of days and I’m trying to figure out if he was just visiting or is nesting. It’s puzzling.
Stay safe, Roxie.
80?!! I think I broke out into a sweat just thinking about it. Today has been a glorious misty 58 – so wonderful to breathe in that air. So grateful for any moisture.
Loving your flower/nature photos and the return of your birds. Our yard, in contrast, is a lovely brown, weedy sort. Even the dandelions have died.
Back to deep breathing the air.
So glad you got your boosters. Going to get one next week. Continue well. Slave Ukraine. xoxo
Darn auto-correct – Slava Ukraine!
xo
Our yard – up until recently – was also brown! But we’ve had a lot of rain and it’s pretty and green now.
I hope you get rain, Martha.
Stay safe.
I have no way of knowing the diff as I’ve never-ever lived in a four-seasons place. All I know is that today at my Southern Calif beach, it couldn’t have been more beautiful with the cloudless-blue sky and deep-blue sea and yellow mustard still growing on the green-enough shore cliffs; lovely and cool-fresh sea breeze with sun sparkling on the water like diamonds; I watched a lizard doing ‘push ups’ on a sun-warmed boulder; and we fed the rock squirrels who live there on the sand just out of reach from the foamy waves coming to shore. So, I don’t get to enjoy snow, but I’m grateful for what I do have, although I’ve always wondered how it must be, to be a kid, and build a snowman, do snow angels, go sledding; hear the crunch of hardened snow underfoot; watch gentle snowfall from a window (I’ve heard of how it’s a very ‘hushed’ world outside when that happens!).
It’s a nice week here in the 70s temps which is welcome relief from our lingering/recent heatwave. We did hear today that we may indeed get some April showers, which isn’t always a ‘given’. (So, that’s GOOD news around these parts!)
Man, fourth Covid shot knocked me out today. Usually it’s me who never has the big response/side effects from the vaccine whereas it tanks my husband for 24 hrs; today, though, opposite; I was probably too tired to start with as I’d had poor sleep for a few days. Anyway, came home and went to bed for a couple of hours; and I’d taken Tylenol, too, which the nurse said to do; and I pushed a lot of water to drink before and after the shot. Oh well. It’s temporary, and I’m glad to have the protection, but I’d like the nausea and headache and neck/shoulder stiffness to make its exit.
Because I had to wait for a bit in the line inside the store (these are two-years-long HUGE outings for me as I’m almost never out in public except for a medical appointment due to my Covid risks), I had the chance to observe comings and goings in this large-chain pharmacy-store; time of the day when it wasn’t too busy but I’d say of maybe eight-to-ten customers in my vicinity, only two of us were masked, and the unmasked had carts and weren’t doing in/out-quick shopping. And of four store staff I saw, only one employee was masked. (All the pharmacy folks were masked, though.) I always find it fascinating to see what’s really happening ‘out there’ in the real world from everything else I otherwise hear about Covid, like on TV news. My senior-aged cousin has been suffering from Covid now for 11 days, never had to go to the hospital as he was vaccinated (three shots), but his fatigue is absolutely tremendous. I listen to what he’s going thru and it makes me cringe. I definitely could do without that; I’m fatigued enough as it is! Which is why I still wear a mask when others don’t.
An aside: Good progress with the foster dog as we approach his third birthday; and a milestone with us of having him for a couple of months now. Has been one of our biggest challenges with any dog. God knows what he went thru before landing at the shelter for five months (and a few subsequent foster parents that didn’t work out), but he’s needed his time in a new environment (us) to process a lot of change, poor guy; and he’s come a long way. Starting this weekend, and with advice of shelter folks and vet (we haven’t adopted him yet; they have to be first ‘say’), we’re beginning to taper some of his prescription drugs for anxiety/panic, with the goal we hope of eventually getting him to a drug-free status. We take him everywhere with us and he’s a good traveler. Hates the weed whacker, my hair dryer and the kitchen blender. Yet he’s not bothered by loud booms, sirens, etc. Is all still such a mystery. Still can’t hug him; he’s not quite up for THAT yet, although he now can’t get enough of petting. But I think we can get there! (It’s such a curious thing: He is a TALKER. Very vocal. We’re getting to know his ‘language’. We recently read that this can be a trait of some Aussie shepherds. It’s always such a surprise to me because of our other nine dogs, we just didn’t get that a lot; this guy in contrast has QUITE a personality! It’s one of the fun parts!)
Such good news about your foster baby! You know, Scout – though she was a Border Collie – was a BIG talker. Definitely the most verbal dog I’ve ever been around. We loved that about her. She made us laugh all the time. Anyway, I’m thrilled to hear things are going so well. Bless you and your husband for committing to the process and, more importantly, to committing to this dear boy who desperately needed you.
Stay safe, Vicki.
I don’t think I recall that beautiful Scout was a talker (which of course then made her even doubly special!).
Actually, I’m glad you mentioned it (because, at one point in all this, we wondered if the dog was just ‘mental’, like perhaps being born brain-damaged or something [in which case, more and more stories of the vocalizing are reassuring]); border collies and Aussies are both herders; they do have that in common. Fascinating! But I had a border collie mix who was certainly quieter. Scout was probably heavier on the purebred of border collie and my dog lighter (with maybe her other genes the more dominant, but who knows; I don’t have any kind of knowledge on that sort of thing; nowadays of course, one can pay for DNA testing [I would have LOVED to know the mix of our other dogs]).
As for hanging in there with him, when we probably thought a dozen times to take the dog back to the shelter, you and a couple-more of your readers were actually quite instrumental in encouraging me, because I’d take that back to my husband, which would make us think twice, so I’m very appreciative that you and others weighed in on my predicament with the dog. One reader had a Great Pyrenees who continued to mouth/’bite’ and I’ve always remembered her comment because this guy is really trying to overcome his ‘expression’ with the mouthing which can tend to be more than a herding nip. We watch him consciously control himself now about it. Another reader here detailed her journey with a ‘psycho puppy’ and learned to just accept what/who he was; that he might always be a lot of work. That this is just how it would be. It happened to us; like, why did we have to end up with such a difficult dog, but maybe that’s just our destiny and his; for some reason, we’re all supposed to be together even when so much didn’t add up for any explainable reason, in fact, to be a family. You spoke of this with Riley; these challenges. Anyway, I took each story from your readers here (and you) and really benefitted from the advice and examples.
He’s had so much to learn in a relatively short space of time. And his size/weight (large-breed, 60 lbs, big paws; on the physical side, he’s a thick/dense sort of dog; powerful, so physically strong) is often just too much for me. When he sprawls on top of me, I sometimes feel like I’m suffocating although, in a way, it’s just humorous; and I remember when he was more aloof and wary, so the trust factor is really gratifying. I don’t mind when a dog jumps up to greet me; but with him, when he stands on his hind legs and since I’m short in stature, his front paws/’hands’ rest on my shoulders and I was initially scared with this because his large head and shark teeth were awfully close to my face. If he ever tried to body slam me, he’d definitely win, but he’s becoming more mannerly every day, which is essential for such a large animal (and the owner/caretaker needing some control).
But small strides, like having him FINALLY agree to relieve himself in the front or back grass of his own yard; a breakthrough which was a long time coming. There were times that the he’d only go potty if he was taken IN THE CAR and then on a walk somewhere, and that was getting really ‘old’ with my husband every night at bedtime. It’s been a SAGA, I’m tell’in ya! This dog is walked EIGHT miles per day (four times in the day, 2 miles each time, rain or shine, morning-noon-dinnertime and at bedtime; it’s a COMMITMENT, but my husband has never wavered in the care/needs of this active, energetic, young animal [despite now, as a retiree, having TWO part-time jobs; and my husband isn’t getting any younger]). My husband got more than he bargained for in terms of the work of the rehab, but we just are more and more fond of the dog as each day passes.
Thanks for listening; it’s a big subject in my life!
Yes, Scout was a pure-breed Border Collie. We usually go for mutts, but she was in need of rescue and we fell heads over heels in love with her.
It’s so worth the time and effort when you see the behavioral changes. He wants to be with you both, so he’ll gladly work on correcting his behavior.
He just needed unconditional love and structure/discipline.
xo