It's official: Spring is here. It was in the 40's on the first day of Spring, overcast and drizzling rain. The night before David and I, and our neighbor Melissa, went to another "Birds of Spring" talk, this one at the Maine Islands National Wildlife Refuge center. A small room, but packed butt-to-butt on chairs jammed in. A veteran birder showed slides of many beautiful birds spotted locally, with a rambunctious interrupting crowd. Not too long, either. A good evening.
Now we're waiting one more snow storm. Here in mid coast Maine we are predicted to get 1-3 inches, with Downeast Maine (counterintuitively north and east of us), getting more. But the big news is the wind, which is predicted to gust to 40+ mph here and 60+ Downeast. Blizzard warnings for Downeast. Oh, well, I say let's get it over with. It'll be back in the 30's tomorrow and 40's soon after that. I'm thinking seeds and garden layout. I'm thinking true Spring - boats back in the water, grass reviving as the last of the icky dirty icy snow finally melts, getting out our push mower, putting up a bird house. I'm thinking Spring.
And beyond that, I'm even starting to think Summer. Best recent news is our friend Jon is coming to visit in July, has bought his plane ticket from LA and Amtrak up to Brunswick from which he'll drive the last 50 miles. He's staying at the same little cabin/motel place that David and I serendipitously discovered when we came up to look at houses. It's right on the water and looks out on a beautiful cove. The sound of waves, stars in the sky, what could be better - except breakfast at a good local restaurant the next morning! Yeah Jon! (The rest of you laggards who we've invited, your invitations are still good. Come on up and visit us!
Here's what's happening locally - once again a consecutive section of coming events from the Free Press taken more or less at random (although I admit I wanted to include that "FrogWatch" item):
Training for FrogWatch Volunteers, 5-8:30 p.m., Belfast Library, 106 High St. Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition and FrogWatch USA sponsor the free session for volunteers who want to join FrogWatch's citizen-scientist monitoring program. No prior experience is needed.
• Free Workshop on "De-Cluttering," 5:30-7 p.m., Picker Family Resource Center, Rockport. Joy Chamberlain tells how to defuse mental clutter, and then bring order to personal spaces. Registration is required: 596-8950.
• Microsoft Word: Fun with Forms, 6-8 p.m., Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro. Teresa Johnson leads the class for those who know Word basics and want to learn how to make forms. $19. Registration: msad40.MaineAdultEd.org or 832-5205.
• Discover Your Animal Totem, 6 p.m., Evolve Sanctuary for the Soul, 39 Main St., Belfast. Todd Hanson leads the class that will explore beliefs in shamanic and Native American traditions and send participants on a journey to meet their own "power animal." $30. Sign-up: info@ToddHanson.net.
House news - in our kitchen behind the stove we have a vent. I think it likely had a fan and a cover, but in the house as we bought it, it came as a naked vent shaft, with a pull chain to open the vent to the outside to vent smoke from the stove. We had an idea about creating a new cover for it. David procured plywood and cut it to size. I penciled a drawing of a Cardinal, which David then outlined with a device that burns the wood. He then colored the drawing. Finally he put several protective layers of polyurethane coating, attached it to the frame he'd made, and attached it to the vent. Here's the finished cover - beautiful, if I say so myself:
Okay, going to fill up the bird feeders for the little critters before the snow starts.
Peace.
Even though I often bring my camera with me on my morning walks with Ella - as anyone who reads this blog knows from what are probably too many photos of sunrise over the Rockland harbor - this past Saturday I didn't have it with me. Of course. Murphy's Law.
On that morning, we got a little later start than usual. It was warm out - about 30 degrees - and sunny and I decided to extend our walk slightly by walking down Camden Street back toward town a couple blocks before turning back toward home. We had started down Camden Street when I heard a bird whose "song" was really unfamiliar but close and loud. I started to look around for it, and heard the familiar "upset" call of gulls. Just across the street from us I noticed two gulls who were flying in small circles over the top of a large tree, squawking the whole time in protest. Near the top of the tree I saw a huge bird, the source of the unfamiliar "song." Suddenly I realized I was looking at a Bald Eagle. A minute later a crow flew into the tree and perched about 6-8 feet away from the eagle. I know how big a crow is, and this eagle was so much larger! The crow began its own "protest" call. Another crow appeared and began darting and jabbing at the eagle in the tree. At that point the gulls flew off. A minute or two passed, with the two crows continuously "protesting," one from its perch in the tree, the other darting in, darting out. Finally the eagle took off, flying over our heads where we stood across the street, and heading out toward the water. The two crows took off after it, darting at the eagle, protesting the whole way, reminding me of a couple of dogs nipping the heels of a third dog as they chased it away.
Why couldn't I have had my camera? There would have been plenty of time to photograph the eagle, even catch the crows' behavior and maybe a photo or two of the chase. Lesson learned - take my camera with me in the morning. So I had it with me this morning... but elected not to snap another photo of the ferry heading out toward Vynal Haven or the harbor water, even though in the morning sun it was glowing in shimmering silver light.
Today it was 8 degrees - feels like minus 3 - when we went out. I hear New York to Boston - which means friends in CT - are getting snow today. Not here, just cold, but sunny and beautiful.
My aging bones feel spring waiting to ... spring. Or possibly that's just wishful thinking.
Peace (in the Ukraine and everywhere).
