May 19 - Birds on buildings

Here in Michigan, we have a lot of Canada Geese. Actually, "a lot" is rather an understatement. In the spring it isn't unusual to have flocks in the parking lot where I work. There is a two week span where the geese will pair up and walk around on the roof, and honk loudly. You can hear them inside the building. Even though this happens every year, it is still a surprise to look up and see them on the roof edge.

If you could blow this picture up, you could see that the goose on the right is honking up a storm. His beak is open and you can see his pink tongue. They are on top of a three story office building.

The point of this is that I'm used to seeing large birds on buildings. But today... what a surprise!  I was walking down the aisle to my cubicle and in my peripheral vision I thought I saw some strange new apparatus on the building across the lot from my window. I took another look and nearly fell over when I realized there were two turkey buzzards sunning their wings on the roof.

 We get a lot of buzzards here, but I've only seen them circling overhead in the sky. I ran for my camera, but between the windows and the reflections, I didn't get a good picture. 

It has been quite the week for birds. On Tuesday, I was in Ann Arbor at our Sleeping Bear Press office. They are in a new office park with ponds and green space. From the conference room window I could overlook the pond where a Great Blue Heron was busy stalking around the perimeter.


He did have plenty of company though.This duck had a head that was florescent! An amazing green color. I'm sure it was one of the ubiquitous mallards, but the sun was catching the head just right so it glowed.

 And just to top off the entire occasion, how about a swan, a Canada, and eight (count 'em!) great egrets. Wow.

On top of that, we have had so much rain, 3.48 inches so far in May, that every low spot has a puddle. And there are ducks in all the puddles. On my drive to work there is a little puddle in the lawn beside the road. It usually has a mix of Canadas and ducks. Yesterday the Canadas were further back under the trees with their younglings, so the ducks had control.

Wonder what I'll see tomorrow!

May 13 - What a difference a week makes

In the first ten days of May, spring has just exploded. We went from temps in the 40s up to 83 today. Wow! And during this warm up, we have had torrential rain, incredible lightning and thunder storms and exponential plant growth. I know, this is what spring is all about, but it never fails to amaze me just how fast the world changes around you when it finally happens. In twelve days we have mowed the lawn three times. The lilacs have moved from tiny green leaf buds to full bloom. Even now the fragrance is pouring in through the window. It is a heady time of year.

Crabapple trees, pear and apple trees are all in full bloom along with ornamentals such as redbuds, weeping cherries, Cleveland pears, magnolias and dogwoods. And because this is such a late spring, there are many shrubs still blooming that would normally be long done—forsythia, azaleas and rhododendrons are adding to the show. It’s hard for me to drive to work when my head is swiveling on my neck as I try to take it all in.

My May garden show is spectacular. Right now I have several hundred daffodils in many color varieties and sizes. They are punctuated by bright orange fritillaria. The berm is a sea of blue forget-me-nots with tulips floating over the top. Golden poppies, blue mertensia and bleeding hearts all complement each other. The hostas are unfurling their tight spikes. Each day brings change and new beauty. Every day finds me looking about in awe. 

This year the bleeding hearts are just spectacular. I finally have them in a spot that makes them happy, and the flowers are the reward. Amazing what a bit more sun will do for a plant. And as usual, I can never see bleeding hearts without thinking of Grace Alder and how beautiful her long bank of hearts was.

I also love the pulmonarias. I have the Mrs Moon variety which has blue and pink flowers on the same plant, in the same floret. It is magic. It is also one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring which makes it even more welcome. In years past they have bloomed in late February or early March as the snow melts.

On Monday, I went to a Monks and Friars meeting in Ann Arbor, where Jim Horton lives on ten acres of woods. The trees had not yet leafed out, but the forest floor was covered in trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit. When I expressed my amazement to Jim, he promptly said “Let’s take a walk!” The four of us who had arrived early headed for the woods. Jim pointed out Cutleaf Toothwort. That was new to me! He also had lots of Mayapple, yellow violets, spring beauty, and trout lilies. What fun!

I had a major moment in establishing my credibility at this meeting. Some of us were downstairs in the shop where Jim was showing us his new Prouty, a mighty sweet press about the size of my Improved Pearl. He was telling us he hoped Joe Warren could come look at it because the ink disk wouldn’t cycle. In about two seconds Phil and I were behind and under the press looking at the mechanism. We were turning the flywheel, watching what was turning or not turning and trying different solutions. I finally realized that the collar holding the ink disk up was upside down. When I pointed this out, the guys were stunned. I got some high fives and some major points. It was great!  Now if I could do the same thing on my own problem press I’d feel even better.

Jim’s entire basement is a wholly dedicated print shop. He also has a greenhouse type addition to the house, where he has more equipment. It is a gorgeous space to work. Windows on three sides, plus the top. I could live that way.  But wait--I do, sort of. My shop in the backroom has windows running the length of two walls—I’m not looking out at woods, but still, it’s better than a basement. 

Today was Friday the 13th, and quite an auspicious day it turned out to be! After a day and a half of intense reorganization planning, my boss told us all to go home at noon. I was exhausted. It had been a hard week. Prepare for the reorg task force. Fly to Tulsa to meet with the CBA rep, get a 6am flight home in order to attend a meeting from 1:30 to 5:00 pm, then have two days of task force with the Cengage folks. Whew.

Got home and Jack and I took a little nap. Nicely refreshed we went off to the Yellow Stand and bought some tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, essential herbs like cilantro, basil and flat leaf parsley.  We've been buying plants there for years, and they know us quite well, so when our favorite gal saw I was buying a Sweet 100 tomato she talked me into getting a Sunsweet tomato as well. She guaranteed it would be sweeter and I'd like it better. The problem was they only came in four-packs. We may share a couple plants with the girls across the street. We got all the vegies planted. And Jack put in seeds for Sugar Snap peas, and purple and yellow wax beans. Yum. 

We also moved the last cement step from the middle of the yard and set it on top of the other one by the raised beds. It is now tall enough to be a perfect spot for a sit. Just one step was a little bit low, and made it really hard to stand back up.

Fully pooped, we quit and adjourned for dinner.  We still need to plant seeds for lettuce, spinach and chard. We are supposed to get rain tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. So those seeds might not get planted until Monday. No matter.

May 2 - Turned my back

I have been out of town for two weeks. I thought I'd be coming home to spring. Green! Leaves! Tulips! Flowing trees!  Nope. Michigan was under the continuing cold spell that we left. Cool, rain mixed with snow. But even cool weather can't stop everything. 

On my way to work this morning I saw a pair of Canadas with their little kids being carefully herded in between them-- three little goslings about the size of a tennis ball with legs and heads. I wonder what happened to the rest of the babies? Eaten by cats? Snapping turtles? Victims of unconscious drivers?  Not a very pleasant contemplation. Easier to think about the doting parents and sweet babes.

Did I tell you we are moving to Utah? So far we have a foot in each camp: working on a house to sell and working on a house to live in. The Parkview ornithology is going to be just as interesting as what we have here in Michigan.  Growing up in that house, it never seemed like there were many birds. However Jack has been keeping feeders filled for the last six months. The yard is alive with what David calls tweety-birds, meaning who knows what that fast little shy bird is.

The thistle feeders are covered with Pine Siskins and House Finches. The sunflower feeders are being enjoyed by chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and scrub jays. The magpies, flickers, jays and downies fuss over the suet. Ground feeders like juncos scrabble under the feeders. Saw a rufous sided towhee very busy digging through the pine needles to find edibles underneath. And the pair of Peregrine's that nested in the yard last year were very busy in overhead circles, but I didn't see them land in the yard. (darn!)

It is interesting how bird species are being categorized. Growing up we had juncos. They were slate gray with darker heads and lighter gray breasts. There were different species of juncos in the east and in California. Now the bird experts say they are all the same junco, just some color variations. Okaay. So welcome to the world of subspecies. What used to be four separate species are now just one, but one with great diversity.  The juncos that I saw in the Parkview yard were what is now called a Grayheaded Junco and have rufous side patches. Interesting.

I was also able to add two birds to my life list! A Townsend's Solitaire and what I'm about 90% sure was a Bushtit, both hung around the pine tree outside of the kitchen window long enough for me to grab the Audubon book and identify them. Cool!

The photo to the right is the Townsend's Solitaire. It has a distinctive light circle around the eye, and a very sharp black beak.

Jack identified a very odd oversized bird working over the feeder. Turns out the deer like sunflower seeds. They would come up and lick the side of the feeder. (No, we are not putting out salted sunflower seeds, before you ask.)  They would also paw through the snow and clean up all the discarded hulls. That's some kind of roughage!

Meanwhile it is finally starting to warm up. The mid-50s and perhaps even a day in the 60s are in our upcoming forecast. Can't wait!

The early spring bloomers that are usually at peak in mid April are finally starting to open up. Amy's yellow primroses, blue and pink anemones are getting bigger every day. A few pansies overwintered and are blooming as well. The daffodils are starting. The lovely little pulmenarias that usually bloom in March as the snow melts are finally opening up as well. I can see the first dark tips of mertensia poking up and the tulips are about 8 inches high. The maples are finally budding so while there are still many many bare limbs on trees that bud later on, the world is slowly shifting to a blush of chartreuse.

The grass is even looking plumped up and greener. Time to start the daily walks around the yard to see what is new, what's about to bloom or bud out. It's a great time to be alive.

29 March 2011 - Contrails

I love clouds. I have literally hundreds of photographs of clouds. Many of them have been taken through the window of an airplane. Looking down on clouds is so different than looking up. Yes, I have seen clouds from both sides. What is particularly interesting about looking at clouds from above, is that you can see the effect of the wind patterns in the formations. You can’t always see enough sky from the ground to see these patterns.  In my list of obsessions, clouds are right up there with pupating insects, the moon, ant risings, gnat tunnels and other favorite oddities. 

Today I discovered that I’m not the only one. There is a Cloud Appreciation Society, founded by Gavin Pretor-Pinney in the UK, and he has just published a book called The Cloud Collector’s Handbook. Now here’s a man after my own heart.  In the article about his new book there were two quotes that I love: 

o     “You just need to look and observe,” he said. “Sometimes getting too trained up  
        in something narrows your vision.”

·            o   As Mr. Pretor-Pinney sees it, you don’t have to possess something to collect it: 
                 “You just have to notice it and record it.

        

That perfectly defines how I feel about watching my backyard flora and fauna. Not to mention my love of cloud spotting. 

 I saw this amazing cloud formation while I was driving south on Middlebelt last May for my annual trip to the nurseries.  It was extremely windy so the formation did not last very long. I happened to look up and see what looked like a row of huge round hay bales. The bottom of this formation could not have been straighter if it was sitting on a flat surface. I pulled over into a parking lot to get the picture. In those few moments of parking and getting out of the car, the round bales were beginning to transform into a more oblong shape.




    Last September I went to Tollgate Gardens for a walk in their woods, and time away from people. It is a gorgeous setting: big pond, community gardens, orchard, alfalfa fields, children's garden. There is a lot to see and enjoy and rarely are there other people. Here's a row of hale bales that look very much like my hay bale clouds. I did a bit of research last May, trying to find out if that formation had a name. I found something similar that was called billows. I'm not sure if this is the same thing. I kind of like the idea of calling them hay bale clouds.


In the Pet Peeve department, one of my current  peeves is contrails. Over the last several years I have noticed how contrails don't disappear anymore. They spread out and become clouds. You get up in the morning to a perfect blue sky. By mid-afternoon the sky is no longer blue and is covered by hazy-white left from all the contrails that have blown out into clouds. This has been an unstated annoyance in my life view. 


All the clouds in this photo are contrails being blown out into cirrus type clouds.

While looking up cloud formations on the web I discovered I'm not the only one annoyed by this. And what a surprise to find that contrails are hugely controversial. The airlines want the public to believe that contrails are perfectly harmless and are just water vapor. However, there is a lot of research going on that shows it is not just water vapor. The researchers refer to these as chemtrails. In 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency put out a report  that verified jet fuel is highly toxic and that any persistent jet contrail plume will be laced with these toxic chemicals which negatively impact human health, agriculture, plants and animals. 


The report went on to say that these toxic ingredients may be the cause of:
      • Increases in dead and dying trees. The U.S. Forest Service notes changes in destructive forest fires  and relates this to increasing releases of combustible toxic chemicals in our atmospheric heating and testing programs and persistent jet contrails exacerbating climate change?

     • There are sharp increases in childhood rickets in many areas of the United States related to increasing cloud cover. A lack of Vitamin D is showing up in pregnant women and young children along with other associated health effects. There appears to be a breast cancer connection to Vitamin D deficiencies noted in recent studies.

• Global Dimming Studies are showing that less sunlight is reaching the earth but temperatures are increasing 

• There are sharp increases in clinical depression since the late 1980s, which could be related to less direct sunlight reaching the earth.

• When jet contrails and man-made clouds are coupled with NOAA’s 60+ listing of unregulated current and ongoing experimental weather modification programs in the United States, the synergistic effects could create enormous climate changes disrupting crop production, micro-climates, and plant health.

•  Increases, in molds, mildews, fungus, flue viruses and pests from increased night temperatures, due to man-made clouds which exacerbate global warming and change the climate, are escalating with limited studies being conducted.

• There are sharp increases in atmospheric water vapor which are caused and exacerbated by jet engine emissions, persistent jet contrails and man-made clouds trapping warmth in the atmosphere. According to the 2007 Climate Change Study, water vapor is one of the most important gases contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Wow.  And here I am merely annoyed they are covering up my blue sky. Who knew? Apparently planes are flying at higher altitudes now, and this allows the bigger, longer lasting and further reaching contrails. 

Granted, contrails make for dramatic sky photos, especially at sunset, but the consequences are something else to worry about.

20 March 2011 - Waiting on the rain

Today I am waiting on the rain. I want a heavy soaking rain that will wash away the last of winter. I want it to wash away the piles of cinders left over from the dirty snow. I want the matted, yellowed winter grass to be revived. I want the rain to be a sign to all the dormant bushes that they should leaf out, bloom, grow! It's a big want list, but not unreasonable.

The barometer plummeted, the sky is dark, the wind is out of the east and I'm waiting. I waited it out all morning in a practical way. Went out and raked the ditches, the berm and some of lawn. Picked up branches, filled 9 yard waste bags with leaves. Under the layers of leaves I found the bright red points of peonies, daffs, tulips, the beginning green-up of perennials such as golden poppy, mertensia, lung wort. And new little plants from heavy reseeders like larkspur. It was wonderful.

The rain was supposed to start around two, rain all afternoon and then turn into thunderstorms for evening and overnight. At 5pm, still no rain, but if I look at the radar map on the bug, it should be pouring out there. humph.

The silver maples' buds have burst open into bloom. They are small insignificant flowers, but en masse they put on quite a show. Especially when the sun hits the stamens and makes everything shimmer.

Depending on the weather, and the latitude, they bloom anywhere from February through March. I always wondered what early bee would pollinate these flowers, but I just recently learned they are wind pollinated. No wonder there are so many thousands of seedpods. While the resultant helicopters are a pain to gardeners: they're messy and they germinate immediately, they have their place in the world as foodstuff for squirrels and a wide range of birds. Since the buds first swell in February, they are important for squirrels whose food supply is usually depleted in late winter. 

Last night was the equinox accompanied by the full moon in perigee. When the moon first appeared low on the horizon it was a deep gold, and almost obscured by all the trees.

I spent the evening popping outside every 15 minutes, waiting for it clear the trees. As it rose and got brighter, the sky around the moon was light--almost blue.

When it cleared the trees, it was so bright, it was almost hard to look at. A slight haze increased the aura around it. 

I am so glad the night was clear and that I didn't miss any of this. Witnessing such spectacles are a holy experience for me. Sometimes I think I will self-combust from rapture.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for the rain.

18 March 2011 - Full Moon Equinox

The last of the snow melted today! I think Lewis Carroll said it best.
'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

Believe me, this is definitely worth chortling about. Two days away from the equinox, the birds are all back, the crocuses are blooming, the lawn is greening up, the perennials are unfurling the first tight buds, it is a joyous time.

Better yet, it is beginning to warm up. 40s? That feels right warm compared to what we've been through. Last weekend the sun was out and warmed up the brick and the deck area. I dragged two chairs and the patio table out of the garage. Spent an hour last Saturday morning sitting in the warm sun with a cup (okay, several) of coffee and absolutely delighted in doing nothing but feeling the heat through my jeans and listening to the birds.

I have previously mentioned my six o'clock ducks. They are still doing fly-bys at 6 pm, but in addition to that I now have morning geese. Unlike my whispering ducks, the geese are noisy. Sounds like they are all honking at the same time, some inner vee dispute about which way to fly?  They fly overhead between 8 and 8:30 am. I usually hear them coming from some distance, so I can go out and watch them pass over. Lately I have been getting 3 large vees of geese about 5 minutes apart. Maybe all the honking is to keep in touch with the vees behind them.

The moon will be full on the equinox and will be in perigee to boot! It will be the biggest moon in 18 years. Even tonight, almost full, it hung so close in the sky. Beautiful. I ran out for pictures tonight in case we get the promised rain and I won't be able to see her at the fullest point. 

Early in the evening, while low on the horizon it was caught behind all the trees. Here it looks as though the globe is being held between two long skinny fingers.  It is also interesting that there were several branches that crossed in front of the moon, but she was putting out so much light that it blew them right out of the picture.

 

 An hour or so later I went out to check on her upward progress. The sky had a light cloud cover and she was drifting through it like an exotic dancer with veils of chiffon. Tantalizing and mysterious.

Saturday, March 19

I had big plans for today. I was going to paint the ceilings in the dining and living rooms. If I was on a roll I was going to continue down the hall. It was a plan. But plans change.

We are supposed to get rain tomorrow. All the snow is gone and I had to get out in the yard. So far I have raked all the leaves, branches and other winter detritus out of the front flower bed, the bed in front of the house, and the big fern bed under the kitchen window. I was going to stop at the point, but I couldn't let the March blooming lung wort languish under a heavy layer of wet leaves.Now that they are exposed to sun and air, I'll bet they will be blooming in a couple of days.

I was surprised to see how many spiders and small beetles were scuttling under the leaves I was raking. I would have thought it was too early for bugs, but I was happy to see them. Gives the birds something to eat. 

I have a pair of tufted titmouses very busy in the yard and on the feeder. I also saw a pair of goldfinches. He was starting to lose his olive drab. Wasn't bright yellow, but kind of buttery.

In other first sightings, I saw a turkey vulture (or buzzard) today. Just one, making big circles over the neighborhood, slowly moving north. March 15 is the official day that buzzards come back to Hinckley Ohio. Hinckley is about halfway between Cleveland and Akron, a three hour drive from Detroit. I guess one left the party early.

The moonrise was exquisite tonight. Low on the horizon it was golden, getting lighter and whiter as it rose in the sky. The light it was putting out cast shadows on the ground.  According to NASA Science New, perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit. I can certainly vouch for the brightness. Even though we had slight haziness, the light burned through it, but the haze also made a halo effect around the moon. Amazing.

10 March 2011 - Wake Up Call

Today I received an unexpected head slap. It is so easy to let your thinking get in a rut. Once that happens it starts ruling your attitude. Oh god, another morning. I don't want to get up. I don't want to go to work. Just let me stay home. Or whatever the moan of the day is.

What happened to me is that I called one of my customers. The receptionist (male) answered the phone this way: "It's a great day to be alive! How may I help you?"  Wow. How does that make you feel any other way but good? It has stayed with me all day. It IS a good day to be alive. Don't forget that! That's even better than the motivational speaker Gale brought in one year for the sales meeting. His mantra was "Nobody can steal your joy."

Speaking of joy, I had some fun driving to work. Every day I pass by a large pond at the edge of a business campus. I usually keep an eye on it for happenings. Today, it was still frozen, but there was a thin skim of water on top. In the middle of the pond were a pair of Canadas. He was shaking his tail feathers and parading around her. She was ignoring him and his antics.

I dove across the road and into a driveway so I could get a picture. I was too far to get a good shot,  but you will get the idea. He was squawking nonstop. Loudly. She was unimpressed.

What I love about this picture is that you can see the reflections of the geese and that you can see the ring around the male where his wings are blowing the water away.

He tired of showing off his rather impressive wing spread and tried berating her. It is hard to see in this small version of the picture, but look closely, you can see his pink tongue sticking out.


Doesn't she look underwhelmed by these advances? The popular wisdom is that Canadas mate for life. They do rather look like an old married couple.


I saw an interesting piece about spring. The article was explaining that the equinox is the traditional first day of spring, but that meteorologists use March 1 as the first day of spring for all record keeping purposes.

I really like the March 1st idea. From all my back-yardiner observations, spring starts long before March 20-21. Here in my yard, on the 10th of March, I have snowdrops in bloom. Daffodils are poking up all over the yard, even coming up through the snow, and they range from little green tips up to 6 inches high. Crocus are showing everywhere. Next to the house where it's warmer, you can even see the bud color. A few are already in bloom and most are ready to burst.  The silver maple buds have been heading toward full bloom since the start of February. Yesterday I noticed the buds are starting to open. So yes, March 1 works for me!

What really says spring to me is when the grackles come back. Every year they are here by March 10. This year I saw the first one on the 8th. This gorgeous male was hanging out in a flock of starlings.  I love how their heads are so irridescent. Mostly they look irridescent green or bronze, but depending how he turned in the sun, he either looked green or blue. You have to love that big bright yellow eye, too. There were also several male redwing black birds in that flock as well. So for me, it's official--it's spring.

I have two spring markers for March 10. First, it is the day the grackles come back, and second it is the day for the first crocus to bloom. I was not disappointed this year. Even though 70% or more of the yard is still covered in snow, I have crocuses blooming. 


Another thing that signals spring starts in February. The tops of willow trees begin to glow with color. I usually see this as I'm barreling down the freeway with no way to stop and get a picture. One day I will probably get in an accident as I tend to grab the camera and try to take a picture through the window while I'm driving. Yes, I know it's dumb. Can't seem to stop myself.

What is interesting about the willows is that the wild willows, the ones in the forested areas glow an intense orangy-red color, while the weeping willows that you find in people's yards or commercial landscaping light up  in golden yellow. 

I have a hard time driving, at this time of year. So much is changing and the subtlety of the colors is amazing. I am always surprised by those who complain about boring drives. There is so much to see if you just look. Circumspice!

21 Feb - 25 Feb - A week of weather

Feb 21

Just walked out with my trusty ruler. Nine inches on the ground. I tried to shovel a path out to the middle of the driveway for the measurements. I think we probably had 10 or more inches, because the show next to the cement is wet, had, compacted and need I mention, heavy. 

All I could hear were snow blower motors when I went out. Guess I'll have to find my earplugs and join in the noise pollution.  I had a hard night with weird dreams. The one I remember the clearest is that Jack and I were in a hotel with more amenities than God, and they wouldn't let  us check out. They kept offering us upgrades to stay one more night. But I was supposed to be at a meeting for work, so they took Jack and hid him somewhere in the acres of hotel.  I spent a lot of time looking for him until I decided this was silly and I should wake up. Maybe the guy that wrote Hotel California had the same dream. 

With all the snow, we had a snow day at work. It took me several hours to get the driveway cleared off, then I had to come in and take a nap. The snow was too deep for the blower to work. I had to shovel off the top, then blow the bottom half. Took me a while to decide which was easier and/or faster: shoveling the whole thing, or the one-two punch of shoveling and blowing.  

22 Feb

I am up, still in my nightie, hair in rollers, ferals fed, domestic cookied, coffee cup in hand. I hear a terrible clatter come down the street. Dear god.  You should see the ridge of snow just deposited at the end of the driveway.  Every muscle I have is screaming this morning from doing nothing but shoveling yesterday. Who is going to administer my coup de grace?  Surely someone could just put me out of my misery.

Now I have to go get some really warm clothes on and shovel out the drive, once again. The plow flew down the street at 60 miles an hour. Snow was thrown at least 8 feet up my newly cleared driveway. It is 12 degrees with a wind chill of 1. I do not want to go out there. I do not want to shovel. And I really don't want to go to work today.  But the sun is shining, so I'll get over it.Besides, I really have to get that ridge cleared off before it freezes solid.

25 Feb

I should be happy! It is Friday! Yeah!

However it is snowing. Again.  I got up at 3:30 this morning and it hadn't started so I checked the weather maps. It looked like we were going to miss this storm-- it would slide south and east of us.  But when I got up, it was snowing.  Once again it is the tiny little snow. We are supposed to get  4 to 7 inches. I sure hope not. It is windy, and snowing sideways. The wind is coming out of the north east. I went out to feed the ferals and the snow stung when it hit my exposed skin. 

The ferals are amusing me. They carefully balance on the edge of the waterbowl to drink. What? They don't want to stand in snow while they drink? And if the bowl gets really low or dry, they use it as a foot warmer. 


Unfortunately I am taking pictures into the sun, through a window and a storm window, both thoroughly smudged by cat noses. The camera wants to focus on the pupkus on the windows, rather than the cat outside.  This is Hughie, perched on the rim of the bowl.  

Here is one of her kids using the empty bowl as a foot warmer. Pretty darn smart. Plus it makes me feel guilty that they don't have any water. 

19 Feb 2011 -- Growing under the snow

We are on our third day of constant winds (and sun!). Yesterday was trash day, and for those working folks who couldn't get their cans in immediately, all I have to say is good luck in finding them. The east side ditches and yards are of full of trash cans—and who can say where they started out—across the street? Further away?  Even this morning, there was a big trash can rolling on down Shiawassee.

The big news is that in addition to our severe weather alert for high winds, we now have another alert for a winter storm from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Again, high winds mean blowing and drifting snow, plus a possible ice storm plus up to 8 inches of snow.

But at the moment the sky is blue, the air is incredibly clear, the sun is warm. Even though it is 26 degrees at the moment, with a wind chill of 18, it felt much warmer as I was standing outside feeding the ferals. It took me quite a while to locate their dishes this morning. When I finally found the black dish, well disguised in the garden, it was right beside a very bedraggled stem of catnip. There were four or five sad looking leaves left. I picked the stem and made Bela a very happy cat this morning. He chomped the leaves right down and he currently has a bad case of the sillies; racing through the house at full clump.  Pretty soon he is going to show up for munchies. 

I pulled in the driveway and did a double take when I saw this "palm" tree. The sun was low in the sky and the rays hitting the pine branch made it glow. Just that one limb from the pine was lit up and it was perfectly positioned over the top of the red twig dogwood, the dogwood looked like a palm tree trunk. Made me laugh. So I sat in the car for a moment or two and thought of all the times I've seen palm trees and the warmth associated with them. 

Yesterday I noticed that against the house, where two days ago there was over a foot of snow, we now have little green points sticking up--mostly crocus. Today, the snow melt revealed a patch of early daffodils, over 4 inches high.

I wonder what triggers them to grow. It has been single digit temperatures for months here, and still, something whispers grow; and they do. Our world astonishes me everyday.

Robin reminds me there is a note in the Talmud which says, “Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'”

She may be right. The snowdrops are coming up and blooming. Makes me happy!

18 February 2011 - Full Moon

I have been so darned cheerful lately, not to mention inordinately happy. I know a big part of this is the sun coming up earlier and setting later. Could it be directly responsible for this mood swing?  I feel as though I am bouncing through my day. I’m not sure if is a joyful mood or a joy-filled mood. Don’t really care, either way it just feels good.

I always have a song in my head. Sometimes they come out of left field, leaving me mystified as to their origins. (Why me? why that song?)  But mostly they are direct reflections on what is going on around me. Today at work I stopped dead and laughed out loud when I realized those little high voices in my head were Munchkins from Oz singing:

You’re out of the woods

You’re out of the dark

You’re out of the night

Step into the sun

Step into the light.

What could be more appropriate than that?  I really would like to know just how the brain works. I could not have dredged that song up if you had asked, but there it was, chirping away in the background. As usual, the melody was there first, the words breaking through here and there until it dawned on me what was going on.

Now that I’m home it seems like all those happy little endorphins have worn off.  I can hardly stay awake. What just happened here? All that happiness just wore me out?  I am practically falling asleep at the keyboard. Whew! I need my bed, my cat, and a nice little nap.

We are having a two-day heat wave. We hit 48 as our high today, way lower than the 56 that was predicted, but we had a screaming wind all day. It is still howling out there, enough so we have a severe weather advisory for wind damage. Maybe it will drop the maple on the garage solving some problems for me!

What with all the wind and temps above freezing, the snow has melted and there is quite a bit of bare ground showing. I walked down the front of the house today and saw a lot of crocuses sticking their little green points up through the dirt. And the early daffodils are at least 4 inches high: just growing under the snow… amazes me every year.

These green spikes are not grass blades, but the first leaves of a clump of iris reticulata. They are also very early bloomers. The whole plant including the bloom rarely gets over 5 inches high. It is one of those tiny charmers that waits for the viewer to notice, but the deep purple miniature iris are certainly worth looking for.

Saw a funny thing on the way to work today. Along the side of Grand River there was a string of mole hills; all fresh dirt and in a straight line parallel with the road. Are they busy under the snow, or did the warming air draw them up? So much to learn!

The moon is full tonight and it is gorgeous! I have spent way too much time staring out the window, watching it ascend: starting from a golden globe at eye level and as it rises in the sky turning from yellow to a white so bright it almost hurts to look at it. Nevertheless, I am transfixed. There is something so mysterious and so intriguing about the moon, no matter what phase it is in, but the full moon? 

The February full moon is also knows as the Full Snow Moon. I can imagine how bright the world would be if we still under snow. As it is, the moon is throwing shadows on the lawn without the snow cover.

The moon is so big tonight-- I wonder if we are near perigee?  Something else to look up!

17 February 2011 – Six o’Clock Ducks

The big news is after two and a half months, the cold snap broke. Our temps soared into the mid 40s!  You could hear the ice creaking on the roof and drips hitting the gutter. Very happy noises!   But wait there’s more! Friday our temps are supposed to climb to 53.  Can’t believe it. That should melt most of the snow. Maybe not all the huge piles in parking lots or the ends of driveways, but the roof should be clear and the ground as well. After that the predictions are for more snow mixed with rain and highs in the 30s, but that is totally bearable. Whee! Warmer air, longer days? Makes me so cheerful!

I keep meaning to tell you about my six o’clock ducks. I would love to get a picture, but I haven’t managed to have my camera when I see them. About three weeks ago right about six pm I was standing out on the deck after feeding the ferals. I heard the faintest whispering sounds. Couldn’t figure out where it was coming from or what was making it. Finally saw a flock of at least 50, probably more, ducks circling overhead. They were calling to each other, but very, very softly. Not even quacks, but more like whispered wack wack noises. Three weeks ago, everything was still frozen solid. No open water on ponds, no creeks nothing. But here, the ducks were back.

Every night since then, if I have been outside, or driving home from work around six, I have seen the ducks. Tonight I noticed that they are starting to break into smaller groups. But they are still whispering. Interesting.

Meanwhile, squirrel courting behavior is in high gear. Great acrobatic chases through the tops of the trees and daring high wire routines on the phone lines are being displayed to impress the females and that includes me. The mating chases can go on for days, with the female in the lead, playing hard to get. She will stop and wait until he gets close then take off again. It is quite entertaining. In retrospect, it dawns on me that squirrels mate twice a year—mating rituals in late Dec to Feb and again in June through July. No wonder there are so many road kill squirrels during these times. Why watch for cars when your eye is on the prize?

I have quite a stack of seed catalogs—the first one came in December and even now new ones are still showing up in the mail. I pour over these pages filled with bright colors and promises, turn down corners, make notes and wonder where on earth I could possible fit everything that catches my eye. But an evening spent curled up on the couch with a hot cup of coffee, a blanket and a new seed catalog is hard to beat.

Even though there is more snow predicted in the upcoming days, and historically we have snow into March, we are on a warming trend. No matter how much snow is in your yard today, the sun is higher and stronger, the days are longer, and winter is mostly behind us. Even the silver maple buds are beginning to swell. Here you can see how large the buds are getting on the silver maple. The black, barren limbs in the foreground are on the Norway Maple—not even a hint of budding yet.

The squirrels are very busy in the silver maples. After a long winter, they are happily eating these buds. Makes you wonder how the trees are able to put any leaves out at all. 

Driving home from work the other night, I saw glowing streaks in my rear view mirror. I had to pull over into a parking lot so I could get a good look. The sun was about to set and the last rays were making the con-trails glow in silvers and golds. It was gorgeous. You can also see how our ever present cold winds were blowing the trails around. It occurs to me how many times we start with a cloudless sky, but by afternoon the sky is filled with high clouds that aren’t really clouds at all, but are a huge collection of these con-trails, overlapping and criss-crossing until the blue is covered. 

And here is yet another photo from my parking lot as I was leaving work. This was another single digit day, bitterly cold with wind. I happened to look across the street at the soccer field and see this unusual sight.  The guy holding the strings is standing up to his knees in snow; must make it very hard to run with the kite, but I’m sure the wind was perfect. I got incredibly chilled just stopping long enough to grab this shot.

7 February 2011 - There's a word for this

I just learned there is a name for my malaise. Winter Fatigue. We are at the halfway point of the winter season and many people have reached what I found to be best described as winter fatigue. This particular fatigue is said to be the result of the cumulative effect of short days, cold temperatures, bone-chilling winds, snow and everything else that winter brings.

However, I'm not certain that all of the above is what causes winter fatigue. When you look at nature and how it appears to shut down in winter, maybe it's not winter that creates fatigue but our working against what is natural. By maintaining the same fast-paced life we live throughout the year, perhaps we aren't slowing down or slowing down enough during the cold months of winter and for that reason we are experiencing that feeling of winter fatigue.

What I’m trying to say here is that we need to slow down, rest, and renew, just as the earth does. But what happens is that the body and mind try to do that, and we try to force it into activity. When both resist, we don’t accomplish what we think we should. Lots of forces are working here, the long dark hours, what we should be doing syndrome and just wanting to hibernate—all this can weigh a body down.

As a name, Winter Fatigue fits right in with all the other winter weary descriptions: the doldrums; in the bleak midwinter; the January blahs; the dreary month.  I remember when I first read the D.H. Lawrence essay, Whistling of Birds.  He drew a vivid picture (so vivid that I remember it still, these many many years later) of the contrast between winter and spring. For Lawrence, winter is a season of death and destruction, destroying and freezing everything. He describes winter with words like unbearable, black, fatal, disastrous. He would have us move from a time of pain and misery into a new season of joy and life.

Back in high school, my English teacher drew parallels between this essay depicting birds being able to sing in the spring after a killing winter and Lawrence’s view of the soldiers in the Great War coping with the aftermath of war and being able to move on.

Maybe Lawrence was trying to make a connection between the ravages of war and winter and the human spirit overcoming that, but I find I have to disagree. For myself, even though this winter has had a firm grip on my soul, and I too, have used words like bleak, dreary and dark, there is no denying that winter has a beauty all its own. The brilliance of the sun sparkling on newly fallen snow, trees encased in ice, the landscape transformed by snow into a new, clean world of undulating white, trees encased in ice after a storm—all that beauty is hard to ignore.

In my world view, winter can’t be equated with death or destruction. For me, winter is a rest period, a time of gathering strength. And even while at rest, there is so much life pulsating, yet hidden under the blanket of snow.

I use the silver maples as my gauge. Even in early February, even while the world is frozen and the freezing winds blow, the maples’ buds are beginning to swell. I can look out the window every day and see the little bumps on the limbs get larger and larger.

I am feeling better these days. I feel like my personal batteries are getting recharged by the sun. As the days inch longer, my outlook improves, my energy returns and I am happy. This morning I was driving to work with CBC on the radio. They were playing an oboe concerto. I don’t remember if it was Schumann or Schubert but it was wonderful! The oboe was warm and lazy like a bumblebee sunning on a flower. I was transported into a different realm during my drive. It was almost a shock to get out of the car and see the six foot piles of snow in the parking lot.

It doesn’t hurt that I leave work in the light as well. Tonight it was almost 6 when I left and there was a glorious sunset. This after a long gray day filled with snow flurries. The last gasp of the day and it was lovely. If I didn’t know better I would think the gold was reflecting off the ocean or a lake.

I was getting ready to leave for work and we actually had sun!  I looked out the kitchen window and saw this little guy absolutely glowing in the first morning rays of light. 

Considering this was taken through a window and a storm window, it came out quite nicely.  It is hard to beat a cheery red cardinal in the gray and white of winter. Makes me smile just to look at him. Bet you are wondering where the missus is. She’s there, just hard to spot when you are busy being dazzled by his magnificence.

1 Feb 2011 - 15 minutes a day

I have a friend at work, Elisa, who is a quilter--and she has a wonderful quilting blog as well--all kinds of tips, techniques and interesting samples. You can tell she is a great teacher by the way she writes.  The other day she wrote:

15 Minutes

Best quilt advice EVER! A teacher once told me that, no matter how busy you are, spare at least 15 minutes a day in your quilt room. You'll have peace of mind and will be amazed how much you get accomplished! You can:

*Iron scraps in your scrap tub
*Gather and file pattern pieces from a completed project
*Clean out your bobbin area
*Replace your rotary cutter blade
*Throw out old thread
*Add a few more strips to your log cabin blocks
*Re-roll your interfacing back on the cardboard roll
*Make some spare quilt labels
*Clean your hot iron with wax paper
*Re-wrap your extension cords
*Make the binding for your UFO(s)
*Change the burned-out lightbulbs

What do you do with those precious 15 minutes?

Huh. That got me thinking about free motion quilting. I have a machine that I can use for free motion, but I am not very good at it. Amy and I had been moaning together about how we just aren't getting any better at free motion. Light bulb! I called Amy and gave her the 15 minute challenge. Every day we would practice free motion quilting. It really is the only thing to do, and 15 minutes? Come on, how hard can it be?

We started our 15 minute challenger around the 1st of February. It was hard to do just 15 minutes. For me it sometimes turned into an hour. After a couple of sessions, I could see and feel a difference. Wow!  Now if can just keep it up. Here are some samples I've been working on. These are 10 inch blocks. I've been using a colored thread on top so I can see what it is doing, and a white thread on the bottom so all you see is the pattern.

 

Meanwhile, Amy called to say her local quilt store was offering a three hour class on free motion. Now that we were actually getting the hang of it, this seemed like an ideal time to take a class, get some tips and get answers to questions. It's a plan!

30 January 2011 - Friends and birthdays

30 January 2011

This has been such a hard winter for me in many ways. It has been cold. So far, out of the last 61 days we have had two days—2 days—where the temperature was over freezing. Mostly we hover in the low 20s, with wind chill measured in single digits. Cold. Gray. No wonder people go to Florida. I have lived in Michigan for thirty-one years now. This is the first winter I have truly understood the need to get out of Dodge and head south for the warmer climes. 

My siblings think I’m depressed. Maybe. But I think it is more a factor of the cold, the unrelenting grayness of it all than anything else. In addition to the gray, I get up in the dark and come home in the dark. How do I cope? I have been counting the light minutes.

I started keeping a daily chart of sunrise sunset times. On January 10: Sunrise 8:02 am. Sunset 5:19pm. Today, Sunday the 30^th,  the sun rose at 7:49 and set at 5:44. In only twenty days we have gained  37 minutes of light. I can’t even begin to describe how good that makes me feel. I am still getting up in the dark, but by the time I pull out of the driveway the world is light. No sun, but light.

The continual gray saps the will to do anything. I had big plans for Dec. Patch all the holes in the walls, pull down the wallpaper and paint. Here it is in the last days of January and I haven’t started yet. I get home in the dark and find that the cat, a book and the couch seem to be my best options. And it often digresses into really bad tv. I have even found myself watching the ubiquitous cop shows: NCIS, Without a Trace, and the ilk. What has happened to me? I think I’ll perk up with the longer days.  

The 27^th was my birthday and I received a huge surprise. Saturday morning I was out shoveling snow and I heard someone calling my name. I knew Karen had planned on stopping by. I had mentioned to her earlier, that my sibs thought I was depressed and not getting anything done. She said she’d come by and help me get started. Well, she came by, and surprised me by bringing Amy with her. They said they couldn’t let me spend a birthday alone. We had a wonderful girls’ weekend. Amy brought a huge pot of home-made cabbage soup and some wonderful bread. We ate, laughed, talked and caught up. We went to a quilt shop in Berkley where Karen found backing fabric for a quilt top she just finished for one of her three grandkids. 

From there we went to Leon and Lulu’s, a store I’d wanted to check out for some time. It was even better than advertised. Housed in a historic roller skating rink, it is now a mecca with one of a kind pieces for the home. From furniture and lamps, to art and artful clothing, it was just amazing. We closed the store. Then off to Empire Dynasty for Chinese. Yum! What a wonderful way to end birthday month. There is just nothing like old friends. Karen is a good forty minutes away, living in Hartland and Amy is four hours north up in Gaylord. It was a treat.

The funniest story from the weekend was about quilts. In August of 2009, Karen’s youngest daughter, Erin, was living in North Carolina. Her apartment building was hit by lightning and burned to the ground. She lost everything. Amy and I decided on the spot that we would make her a quilt. It took us almost a year for the process of deciding on colors and fabric, followed by designing the pattern, splitting the fabric, sewing blocks, and laying it out. We used up almost every last piece of fabric as the quilt became larger than we had planned. We had some interesting moments trying to make do with the small amounts of fabric we had left. The quilt was all in batik in lovely purples and oranges. It looked like a wild sunset. 

The joke was that they would have to pry it out of my hands to give it to Erin, when it was finished. I, however, thought they would have to pry it out of Amy’s hands. After we gave the quilt to Erin I had the bright idea that I would use the last of the scraps of fabric and make a small commemorative wall hanging for Amy. It would be my Christmas gift to her.  

Over the last couple of years the dining room has been taken over by my sewing machine, fabric, and projects. I had a paper box lid with all the scraps from Erin’s quilt. When the time came for me to start the wall hanging I was dumbfounded. There was nothing left! I could hardly come up with enough fabric for two small blocks. I went through my piles of fabric over and over again. I was so sure I had more. I did make Amy a keepsake. It was very small. At Christmas when I gave it to her, I told her how shocked I was to discover how little fabric I had left, when I was so sure I had enough to make a decent sized wall hanging.

You can imagine my surprise when Amy gave me a Christmas present… a wall hanging made from scraps of the fabric left from Erin’s quilt.  It turns out that last fall when she spent a weekend with me, she snatched up a handful of scraps from the dining room table every time I left the room. Sneaky! So sneaky, and so not Amy’s style at all. I think Karen and I have been very bad influences on her. But her quilt—um, my quilt is just gorgeous. It isn’t quite finished, so Amy took it back—just as I took back the Christmas keepsake I gave Amy, which needs to be quilted. I am still laughing about this. 


 Here is a photo of the wall quilt Amy made for me out of the scraps. She calls it Zinnias Outside My Window. Zinnias are one of Amy's favorite flowers. She had a big bouquet on her table while she was sewing this together. It occurred to her that the blocks looked a lot like the zinnias in her bouquet. 

It is wonderful. It has the feel and fabrics from the quilt we made for Erin, but it is entirely new.