February is done and I'm happy for that. The world seems to stall in February and now, with March here, it will start to move again. The last week of February was typical of my expectations for the month. It warmed a little, but not enough to actually feel warm. Things began to thaw, but not enough to rid us of the snow, just enough to make things slushy and muddy. It rained a little. It snowed a little. And then it froze it all solid again. It was gray most of the week.
I took a look back at my photos for the month and realized that there were no notable sunsets and only one somewhat pretty sunrise. That sunrise happened on Monday and it was nice, but nothing spectacular. February lived up to its drab reputation.
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| The best sunrise of February, and not much of one at that. |
As a nasty parting shot from February, I began the week with a problem. I sometimes have trouble with my left eye. For several years now, something, usually dust from mowing, or a kamikaze bug, gets in my eyes and triggers a bout of uveitis, always in just my left eye. This time I think it was dust from ripping up the living room the Thursday before. The uveitis, a sore, red, weepy eye, usually lasts a couple of days and then dies down. This time it was more severe. It was uncomfortable over the weekend, but by Monday, the pain was worse than ever before. I couldn't see clearly because of blurred vision and light sensitivity. It was so bad, I called the eye doctor and made an appointment. You know it's bad when I resort to that. The doctor couldn't see me until Tuesday morning, so I spent Monday with one eye closed. That limited what I could do. Reading and working on the computer gave me a headache. I never realized how disorienting it can be with just one eye open. So I listened to music. I watched some TV. I sat and contemplated mortality and the infirmities of the flesh that afflict us as we age and what it would be like to be blind, the sort of somber thoughts that rise in a time of suffering. I suppose I was mostly feeling sorry for myself. I'm pretty good at that when I'm ailing.
I went to the eye doctor on Tuesday morning. Miriam drove me because I couldn't see straight, literally. The doctor confirmed that it is uveitis and prescribed some eyedrops. They started working right away. The doctor suspected that, because this is a recurring problem with me, there was probably an underlying condition that aggravated it, most likely some autoimmune disorder. He said he wanted to run some tests. More doctor appointments. Ugh.
Wednesday was about as exciting as a day in February can be. I placed my seed and plant orders that day. I assembled all my notes, charts, and catalogs and put in orders for vegetable and flower seeds, fruit trees, strawberry and raspberry plants, and growing supplies. I'm not a shopper. I don't like shopping in stores and I'm not keen on shopping online. The only exception is buying books and making my annual garden order. Now with my orders made come the next steps, first anticipating and then enjoying the arrival of all of it. It feels great to have the Garden of 2025 underway, albeit just in the earliest phase.
It rained on Wednesday through the day and into the night. The snow turned to slush, but did not disappear. The driveway and north side of the house turned slick with water sitting atop ice. I kept watching to see if the rain would at least wash away enough snow to expose the flowerbed along the front of the house where I know there are snowdrops waiting to emerge, but no, it did not. They will sleep a little longer.
Thursday was one of those days that, unfortunately, have become more common lately. I spent most of the day in the car going to and from doctors appointments. Because I needed the car, I had to drop Miriam off at school in the morning and then pick her up in the afternoon. My first appointment was in Port Allegany, an hour away. The other was the eye doctor in Coudersport. Both doctors gave me a good report. One said things haven't gotten any worse, the other, the eye doctor, said things have improved. I gave my eye doctor a copy of my latest blood tests and, after reviewing them, he concluded my uveitis isn't the result of any autoimmune issues. I was glad to hear that. I came home and celebrated the good news by putting in more eye drops.
Thursday night it got cold again and the rain turned to snow. I heard the snowplow early on Friday morning down on the highway and groaned in my soul. It wasn't much snow. Just enough to show us that we are still firmly in the grip of winter. My day was a course of eyedrops and listening to an audio book, interrupted by trips to the barn to do chores. The book was David Mitchell's Unruly: The Ridiculous History of the Kings and Queens of England, read by the author. I always enjoy David Mitchell's intelligent, dry, and sarcastic humor. One reviewer described the book as detailing "the British monarchy until the end of the Tudor period, interested not in grand historical narratives, but in finding the humour in this uniquely British institution," and it being "Irreverent, sometimes to the point of crassness." That's an apt description. It has a lot of swearing in it, but at times Mitchell has me laughing out loud with his witty humor. Listening to him read his book brightened up a dull and wintry day.
There was another bright boost to our world on Friday, a flock of red-winged blackbirds came to our feeders. I've seen reports of robins from people further south in the county, but we haven't seen any in Gold yet. The red-wings always arrive before the robins, and here they are. Now the mornings will be filled with their singing, the jubilant "o-ka-lee" that assures me that winter is doomed.
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| The Red-winged Blackbirds have arrived. |
The old adage that March "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" proved true this year, at least the coming part. Well, it was actually February going out like a lion. Friday night, as we were going to bed, the wind suddenly began to roar. I'm not exaggerating when I say roar. That's the only way to describe the sound of it. It shook the house. It didn't last long, just ten minutes of raging wind. Then February passed away in the night.
And so yesterday we arrived at March. After the wind in the night, I expected something to be different when I looked out that morning, but it was just windy and cold and no different from February. March is the month when I'm most likely to catch a severe case of spring fever. I can see that date out there on the calendar, March 20th, the Vernal Equinox and, although I know from long experience that it usually means nothing in terms of winter's abatement, I can't help but hope. Maybe this year it will be different. Maybe the snow will be gone and we'll have snowdrops and crocuses in bloom on the first day of spring. It can happen. Many years, by the end of March we have flowers. Then there are those years when nothing thaws until April. Or May. We'll see.
This weekend was our stake conference and we were supposed to drive to Jamestown, New York, for meetings yesterday and today. We informed the stake that, if there was any bad weather, we would not be attending in person. It snowed a little yesterday, but it wasn't bad when it was time to start out, so we traveled to Jamestown, almost two hours away. As we got nearer to Jamestown, we hit snow squalls. While we were there, it continued to snow. The meetings were good, but on the drive home, we hit more snow squalls, high wind, and occasional white-outs. Today the weather was better, but we'd had enough of traveling for one weekend, so we stayed home and watched conference on Zoom. I'm grateful for technology that allows us to participate remotely.
I took a look at weather for the coming week and was happy to see some warmer temperatures ahead. Mid-week we might hit 50°! But then, it's supposed to rain. I need to prune the orchard and nature seems determined to prevent that. At least maybe some of the snow and ice will go away. Our yard from the front porch to the driveway is a sheet of ice. Walking to the car or the mailbox is a risky and unwelcome adventure. I have seed orders arriving during the week. That will brighten my day, but also intensify my growing spring fever. Patience. Patience.
