Mud, boats and birdsong

Spring must be coming.  There's no more dirty icy slushy "snow" on our front "lawn" - although calling it a "lawn" is some exaggeration - mud has made its appearance, and on our walk on Friday Ella and I saw the first schooner pulled out of the water down at Ulmer's Point to prepare her for launching.  She was still covered in shrink-wrap (yes, the boatyard has 3 meter wide rolls of plastic wrap and they shrink-wrap boats before the winter) but it won't be long now.

I was looking at photos from last spring and the first boat to be pulled out of the water was in March.  So maybe spring really is coming later this year, and it's not just that it feels like winter will never end.  Here's photo from last year of the same boat I mentioned above as the first to be hauled out this year:

David and I went to hear the first Poetry Month event at our local library last Thursday night.  4 local poets.  I liked two of them quite a bit, one somewhat, and one not so much, although part of the issue was having trouble hearing him (not the whole issue, though; he seemed to be one of those poets who choose words for the sake sounding esoteric and clever, that is until he started talking about sex, then what he meant was clearer - unfortunately; oh well, to each poet-hearer, his/her own opinion).  Saturday night we went to Rock City Cafe/Hello Hello Books to an event called, I think, "Scribble Me This."  Anyone could sign up and read and at the evening's end, a vote was held.  I thought about signing up but when we got there, it appeared the median age of the audience (and readers) was somewhere between 16 and 26 so I decided to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.  Some of the young poets' poems were quite moving.  A lot of pain, boredom with traditional teaching, and searching.

I have submitted a poem again this year to the library's poetry contest.  I had to do so rather quickly to meet the deadline, and the contest "topic" this year seemed a little odd - "doors, windows and mirrors."  My poem addressed the topic, but obliquely.  It doesn't matter since the point for me was just to put a poem "out there."  (Although I admit that having been selected for 2nd place last year, I feel pressure this year that I did not feel last year.  And this over a local library contest in a 7,500 person town in the state of Maine!! Talk about taking yourself too seriously!  Seriously!)  However, I will share the results, whatever they may be.

Next week, David's birthday, we are going to hear the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Passover here with a couple from the synagogue; the following week, drive to Connecticut and a (God willing, routine) CT scan, visiting with Helen (Indian food!), Karen and Jerry, work, and driving home; then two weeks later, Atlanta and Cello's 3rd birthday with Cello, Cachao and family.  

And somewhere in all that, beginning to plan our garden beds - tomatoes (although not so many this year), some peppers, LOTS of cucumbers, radishes, carrots (more this year), and I want Brussels sprouts!  And herbs (our thyme from last year's garden seems to have survived in our raised bed below 3 feet of snow, ice and brutal cold; it's bruised and beaten down, but I think it's alive!)

We've had a gaggle of Grackles at the feeder and in the yard lately.  David doesn't like them, but I find them beautiful; they glow in the early spring sunshine, like burnished copper and ebony marble.  This weekend at the backyard feeder I saw my first Goldfinch of the spring, together with a male and female Cardinal.  In the early morning and again at dusk the bird song in the yard behind our house where it meets the yards of neighbors either side and behind us is just amazing, a symphony.  Soon it may be warm enough to sit outside, at least in the midday sun.

Ah, spring - I do know it's just around the corner because my allergies appear to be coming back and the NCAA basketball tournament championship games - men and women - are tonight and tomorrow.

Peace.