The big new item here last week was the winter storm they dubbed Stella that descended on us on Monday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The forecasters predicted blizzards along the East Coast and here in the Allegany Highlands we were to get a foot to fifteen inches of new snow. I have this theory that more the media plays up a storm like this, the better the chance it will turn out to be a dud. There was a lot of media hype heading into this storm and this time I was wrong. When my alarm clock went off at 6:00 on Tuesday morning, it was snowing hard and there was six new inches of snow on the ground. I was notified that school was canceled. Stacey left for work and when she got there she called to say the roads were terrible. It snowed all day on Tuesday. When I went down to do the chores at 3:00, there was foot of snow and it was still snowing. Wednesday morning we had a two hour delay for school and the snow was 18 inches deep.
With the snow came wind. Ferocious wind. It blew the newly fallen snow all over the place. In some spots the wind scoured the snow away to bare ground. In other places it piled the snow into deep drifts. Driving on the roads, we encountered white-outs where the blowing snow reduced visibility to zero. It was miserable. When the wind finally stopped the weather changed again. On Saturday a cold rain fell. Now things are slushy, icy, and a mess.
 |
| Patches of yard scoured clean of snow. |
 |
| Patterns in the snow drifts/ |
March is a cruel month. With just a few days until the first day of spring, it buried us in snow. That actually is pretty typical for this place, but even so, I won’t ever like it. In March I get antsy to get things underway outdoors. I know it’s still too early to do any planting, but I have projects lined up – cleaning things up, getting the garden ready, things to do down at the barn. And all of it is waiting for the warm days to come. I can feel the earth waiting. Spring is there, just under the surface, stirring to life, waiting for the sun to warm the earth enough for it to rise.
The only pleasure I took in the outdoors last week was watching the birds. And the only reason it was pleasurable was because I was indoors looking out a window. The poor birds. The feeders were mobbed with birds all week. And the robins, the poor robins, who flew here from the warm and sunny south, are hungry. I have a crab apple tree in the orchard that bears thousands of tiny little crab apples. I have it just for pollinating the apple trees. The fruit is worthless to me, but not to the robins. Although the fruit has been hanging on the tree all winter and is shriveled and frozen, the robins have been feeding on them all week. I’m glad they can use them until the weather warms and the ground is clear again.
 |
| We have a crazy female cardinal that pecks at the kitchen window. |
 |
| A grackle. |
 |
| A robin in the crab apple tree. |
 |
| Robins in the crab apple tree. |
Meanwhile upstairs, seed tray number one has sprouted and seed tray number two was planted yesterday. All of seed tray number two, all 60 cells of it, I planted with various types of dianthus. They are one of my favorite flower families. If you don’t know what dianthus are, they are pinks, sweet Williams, and carnations. All of them have that sweet, spicy fragrance I love most in flowers.
A feathery snow fell during the night. When I got up this morning and looked out at it, it was so disgustingly beautiful that I had to take a walk. In the soft new snow there was evidence of many visitors to my yard last night. The deer, in their boldness, walked right up the middle of our road and then came into our yard where they crossed and recrossed the front yard, the meadow, and the woodland garden. They walked through the back yard, wandered through the flower beds, and moved on into the orchard where they nibbled on apple twigs and ate some of the crab apples the robins had knocked to the ground. I also saw the tracks of rabbits and a possum that meandered through the yard dragging his tail behind him.
 |
| The bird feeder tree this morning. |
 |
| Deer tracks across the flower beds. |
 |
| Possum tracks in the woodland garden. |
I walked down to the beaver pond to see if I could see any of the elusive wood ducks. They were there. I could hear them, but they stayed hidden in the willow brush. I did see a pair of hooded mergansers. And all the while I was walking in the cold and snow, the red-winged blackbirds were singing in the tree tops like it was a glorious spring morning. One of these days it will be.
 |
| Mergansers on the beaver pond. |
Today was our Branch Conference at church. The Stake Presidency, members of the Stake High Council, and the Stake Auxiliary Leaders came down from the Rochester area to meet with us. The main purpose of the conference was to make a change in our branch leadership. After serving as Branch President for 13 years, Kurt was released today. Our new Branch President is Jeff Moore, who moved into our branch about two years ago. This marks the end of an era for our branch and the beginning of a new one. Kurt has been branch president for as long as he’s lived here. It will be a welcome change for him not to bear so much responsibility. He has served long and well for many years.
When we got home from church today, Stacey went to make a fire in the wood stove. I was in the kitchen when she let out a scream. I rushed in expecting to see her or the house aflame. But it was just yet another starling in the stove. It flew out and I had to chase it around the house before I caught it and let it go. There’s never a dull moment here.
 |
| The offending starling. |
