Remarkable change

Gracie enjoying the afternoon

And just like that, spring is here. Here are the signs so far:

·         I heard sandhill cranes when I walked out of work Thursday afternoon.

·         On my way to work Friday morning, I had to stop for a tom turkey strutting his way across the road.

·         I saw sandhill cranes Friday afternoon.

·         Jane saw robins at her house on Friday and my house on Sunday. I saw them at my house today.

·         I smelled a skunk in the middle of the night last night.

·         Every country road is littered with raccoon carcasses. They are active all winter. I’m not sure what it is about spring that makes them stupid.

·         The creek has thawed.

No ice on the creek

·         Almost all the snow has melted. The only snow that remains is in patches of deep shade. (Ecology humor: when I was in grad school, we used to refer to serious trouble as “Whoo! I am in deep shade!”)

The shadows of the trees on grass this week when one little patch of snow in the deep shade

·         The prairie is flooded because the ground has not yet thawed enough for the meltwater to soak in.

Water on the prairie

·         A little bit of green is showing up under the trees. It’s garlic mustard, a nasty invasive alien, but still….

Garlic mustard greening up

·         I can walk wherever I want. I don’t have to stick to the trails through the snow. It’s very liberating.

Free to roam the yard

When Terry saw the robins, he had the presence of mind to hang the net in front of the windows under the deck. The robins like to nest in the deck beams and fly into their reflections to defend their territory. This makes a huge mess of the windows. I don’t know why robins have the scientific name of Turdus migratorius, but I have my suspicions.

Hilda and I changed the wood chips in the coop Sunday morning. I see that the before and after pictures don’t look much different. You’d appreciate it more if I could include the smell in my post. Or maybe you wouldn’t. In any case, it doesn’t make my eyes water to walk in there anymore.

Before--filthy, stinky wood chips

After--fresh, clean wood chips

A week ago, I planted the now-sprouted Holy Family Potato. Look at all that snow outside the greenhouse! It was a very pleasant 70°F in the greenhouse.

The Holy Family Potato with sprouts

HFP potted up in the greenhouse with snow outside

All week the potato didn’t seem to be doing anything. Upon closer inspection, however, there were roots all over the place.

After one week, roots appear as white fuzzy lines all over the pot. Sprouts are unchanged so far.

I know better than to think that I will be in the garden soon, but every day is one day closer. It’s just such a relief to be able to walk outside without the wind stinging my face. Terry just reported (at 6:15 p.m.) that it was still 70° outside. So good to be alive.