The Last Days of Winter?

While pondering what to report this week I decided not to write about the snow. But now, in writing that opening sentence, I’ve already mentioned it, so – oh well, here goes. Snow is the most prominent outdoor feature right now. I’m trying to be upbeat and civil about it, but it’s not easy. In other years we’ve had coltsfoot blooming along the roads and crocuses in the garden by now. This year it’s all covered in snow drifts. The wind was terrific off and on during the week and the snow has been scoured away in some spots and piled in deep drifts in others.

There should be coltsfoot blooming here.

Drifts over at the Shillig's house.

This Tuesday we will arrive at the Vernal Equinox, the official start of spring on the solar calendar. That means the amount of sunlight we are getting now is equivalent to the amount we had back in September at the Autumnal Equinox. In September we were moving from warm to cold, now we are moving from cold to warm. I guess cold is more powerful than heat because the cold sure takes hold quickly in September and the heat (what heat?) in March can’t seem to push it out again.

Despite the cold and snow, our spring migratory birds are still showing up. The robins and red-winged black birds have been here several weeks now. The turkey vultures arrived earlier than usual on the 24th of February. On Friday I saw the first killdeer of the year. It was resting on one of the only spots of ground that was free of snow on the bank by the barn. As I approached the barn it flew away crying “kill-dee-dee.” They are lovely birds. Another avian indication that spring is almost here is not so lovely. The Curse of the Starlings has begun. Ever since we had our wood stove put in, the starlings have tried to nest in its chimney any time the stove isn’t lit. They come down the stovepipe and into the stove. We hear them scratching and fluttering. They come down with no problem but can never find their way up again. We have to open the stove and shoo them out the front door. We had to get one out when we got home from church today. We used to have wire mesh over the opening of the chimney but it got blown off and the chimney is tall and the roof steep and my inability to deal with heights has kept me from replacing it. Last year we must have had twenty or more starlings in the stove. At the rate things are going, we’ll exceed that number this year.

On Thursday I was not called into school. I puttered around the house most of the morning and then decided I had to do something, anything, to get out of the house. I decided to walk up to the hollow and back. It was cold and windy, but I needed to move more than I needed to be warm, so I set out. The road was slushy in some places, icy in others. I found some interesting icicles hanging from the rocks in the hollow in the places where we hunt for wild blackberries and salamanders in the summer. At one point I startled a pair of ruffed grouse. I didn’t see them crouched in the shadows under a hemlock tree. I was about four feet away from them when they exploded into the air and flew across the ravine and away. They made me jump. I think they startled me more than I did them.

Thursday - going into the hollow.

Coming out of the hollow.

Icicles in the hollow.

I’ve taken a little break from my Discworld books. For my birthday Miriam got me the last two installments in the Flavia De Luce Mystery series, Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mew’d and The Grave’s A Fine and Private Place. I finished the first on Tuesday and I’m reading the second one now. We started reading this series several years ago and loved them. I like a good mystery novel. I have the complete set Agatha Christie on my Kindle and a nice leather-bound set of Sherlock Holmes on the shelf in my library. These Flavia de Luce books are very good. They are set in post WWII England. Flavia is a young girl who belongs to an eccentric aristocratic family and has a gift for chemistry, which helps her solve the mysteries she encounters. They are delightful books. I like the wit in them. I like witty authors who create witty characters. Alan Bradley does that perfectly. That’s why I like the Discworld books too. Terry Pratchett is a master of wit. I recommend the Flavia De Luce books – and the Discworld too.

Some of the early titles in the Falvia de Luce series.

The Thayns were supposed to come up for a visit this weekend, but the couldn’t due to illness in their family. We are sad about that. Now they won’t come until the weekend after Easter. I hope that by then the snow will be gone.

I wrote several weeks ago that the dam on the beaver pond across the road from us broke and the pond had drained away. I’m happy to report that the beavers are not gone, as I previously thought. They have begun to repair the dam and the pond is slowly filling up again. There are a series of beaver ponds along the Middle Branch of the Genesee River, which is the stream that flows through the field across from us and then turns north to join the East and West Branches at the town of Genesee. I did a quick survey of the ponds on the Middle Branch yesterday. There are three ponds on that nine mile stretch of the Genesee that are easily seen from the road. I’m sure there are others in areas not easily seen. I like the beavers and the ponds they build. There has been a push in recent years to restore our watershed here. There is concern that our water table has changed drastically from what it was before they cut down all the forests in the 19th Century. Now the forests are regrowing (although there is still a lot of logging in the area) and there are programs to replant trees to help restore the watershed. Oddly, although they cut down and eat trees, beavers are the masters of watershed restoration. I hope to see many more dams and ponds along the local streams in years to come.

Our beaver dam under repair.

The pond filling up again.

The beaver pond on Highway 449 as you go out of Gold.

The beaver pond by the Gazdag Road.

The beaver pond near the Natural Food Store.

I’ve been anxiously waiting for my clivia plants to bloom. I have four big potted clivias and they always bloom in early March. But not this year apparently. There is no sign of flower buds on any of them. I’m disappointed. One of my orchids is blooming now, however. That makes me happy.

My blooming orchid.

Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day. I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me, but Stacey’s third great-grandmother, Jane McDonnell (1822-1903), was born in Antrim, Ireland. She came from a notable family. Her father, John McDonnell, left Ireland during the Potato Famine and came to America as a  widower with four of his five living children. In Ireland he taught at the Queen’s Medical College. They settled in Iowa City, Iowa, where he taught school. Jane McDonnell married John L. Shillig, who was one of the first settlers of that area of Iowa. John L. Shillig left his family and went to California to pan for gold in 1849. He returned to Iowa rich enough to buy a homestead. They were devout Catholics. It was said of Jane that she “read too much for a woman,” a criticism that makes us admire her even more. So my children do have some Irish heritage through their mother. We didn’t do much to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day (sorry Jane). We had corned beef sandwiches. Miriam made a joconde cake roll decorated with shamrocks. I couldn’t partake of it (too sweet), but Miriam and Stacey enjoyed it. We watched Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Éirinn go Brách!

Jane McDonnell Shillig.

Miriam's shamrock joconde cake roll.