Thinking Spring

With snow still on the ground, it is sometimes difficult to see the promise of spring in spite of all the signs.

And with Easter coming so early, it is difficult to see that as part of the process.  There is too much snow to see Easter, but I felt I needed to get a start on it on it.  Even with only one week to March 31, I got out the Easter decorations this week. 

I put clings on the windows, pictures of happy Easter bunnies. I hung the Easter banner on the honeysuckle bush, then began to add the colored plastic eggs.

The bush was pretty much covered with eggs and I still had plenty left.  Then I realized that last summer Gary trimmed the lilac bushes.  I usually hung eggs there, too, but the bush hasn't grown enough to do that. Next year.  

Now there is snow but the pastel eggs bring a little color to my world, enough to hold me until lilac time.

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Tonight is the Earth Hour so tonight at 8:30 pm all the lights and electrical appliances will be turned off.
Not a major change but I like to make a statement with the millions of others around the world.  

Writiing Stuff

Thoughts on writing, past and present:

I worked all morning on my next collection of short stories.  It is going smoothly because all of the stories come from the blog.  They seem to fit together rather well.  Only four to go and I send Susan the book for proofing, probably by Monday.  I hope to have a box of books by the end of April.

Yesterday I was in the library talking to Colette who has been reading Black Coffee Fiction,  the short story collection Wade and I did together.  She told me she prefers Wade's stories which was fine because earlier Sandy at Sissy's told me she prefers mine.  Colette likes fantasy, which is what Wade writes, while my specialty is what Francine calls "chick flicks with a twist."  Each to his or her own, I guess.

Today, Wade posted his latest story, "Roll Credits" at Black Coffee Fiction, http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  This is another take on a previous story "Rock Singer", written from another point of view. I began to tell a reader to go back to that story on line then realized she couldn't because we removed it from the blog once we put it into the short story collection.  I guess she will have to buy the book.

Ten years ago this week, I wrote a newspaper column saying that going to war in Iraq was a big, crazy mistake.  I was fired when I refused to keep my mouth shut. I found many people who agreed with me and made new friends.  When friends in New Zealand heard about it they spread the word there and what do you know, I wound up going on tour there because the Kiwis didn't like that war any more than I did.

And in the end, I was right.

Drip, Drip, Drip

I walked around the neighborhood today to listen to spring coming on.  The robins are here in force now and chirruping to let us know about it.  The cardinals are calling.  I call back at them and we start a calling war. I make sure I walk past the yards of the city's best gardens and sure enough the first crocuses are blooming.  So are the snowdrops behind the library.  

Above everything I hear drip, drip, drip. The snow is melting off the roof tops and along the sidewalks.  Where before I had to dodge ice patches, I now dodge puddles. It is warmer now but wet feet can still be very cold indeed. 

I drive to Shiocton to see what is going on in the marshes. There is more ice now than the last time I was there but there is still some open water. The sandhill cranes are there.  I can't see them because they hide in the old reeds but I can hear their guard calls.  An eagle floats above.  It must be one of  the eagles from the nest over at Kringle Road.  They probably are already sitting on eggs, taking turns.  One hunts while the other sits.  

In a nearby field there are dozens of turkeys.  It must have been an easier winter than we thought during the cold of January and February because I have never seen so many turkeys in my life.  Almost every field has at least several. 

I come home feeling spring.  Because of the early Easter, I originally thought I wouldn't decorate because of the snow, but I change my mind and begin to hang the colored plastic eggs from the bushes. The bright colors are another part of spring. I will put up an Easter lily banner tomorrow.  

The long range weather forecast says warmer and warmer weather until we reach 50s by April 1.  Could we still have snow?  Absolutely, but I doubt that any of it will stick for long.  

Spring in My Steps

Today was the first day of spring and and the last day of my birthday.

My birthday often goes on for several days. Friends remember a St. Patrick's Day birthday and that means cards that begin arriving a week early and go on for a few days afterward. Today, I think I got the last cards, from New Zealand and France. The parties began on Saturday and ended today with lunch with Susan and Bob Manzke.

Susan made beef stew, using a package of stir fry for vegetables. I never would have thought of that combination.  It was delicious as was the cornbread.We chatted about current events and past events.Today is the tenth anniversary of the day I got fired for writing a newspaper column about the Iraq war and my attendance at an anti-war rally. I refused to back down. These many years later I have been proved right but at what cost?  How many lives were lost because of the stupid decision to go to that war?

Susan agreed to proof my next book, which should be done in about a week. We watched the bird feeders through the kitchen window. Susan reported seeing a red breasted nuthatch, common in the north woods but rare around here. Then a red bellied woodpecker made his appearance.  I used to get one here but hadn't seen one for years.  What a handsome fellow.

I ate hardy, polished the meal off with a coffee cake muffin and then thought "Oh no!".

I want to lose twenty pounds by June and started the process on Sunday. I'd already lost three pounds before I ate that meal. When I got home I checked a calorie counter and realized I ate over a thousand calories in that one meal. I would have to exercise it off. I put my winter jacket on and headed out to the cold, cold, cold beginning of spring. In fact, there was no wind. With no wind, no wind chill.  Bundled up I was able to walk for an hour and a half. I had a salad for supper. I hope that does the trick.

Tomorrow the temperatures begin to climb and in another week we'll be walking around in our spring clothes. 

Cold

Tomorrow is the spring equinox, but it doesn't feel like it.  Cold weather has returned, but I pushed myself to go out and walk anyhow.

The wind chill can be terrible, but if I walk downtown, the buildings protect me.  However, I am thinking that I need to go walk in the swamp near the Good Shepherd Nursing Home on Bronson Road. Once inside the woods, the wind would be cut by half.  The problem is the big piles of snow around the entrance.  If I could get around those, the rest of the walk would be fine.

But I think I will wait two weeks for that excursion.  By then the first wildflowers should be showing.  Yes, the marsh is full of snow but by the first of April it will be gone.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is spring so I will go have lunch with Susan out on Miller Road. We'll gossip, talk books and look at the sandhill cranes in the fields.  I take signs of spring as they come.

Suddenly Spring

Two days until the equinox and instead of daffodils, we were warned that another snowstorm was on its way.

My birthday is always a day of reflection.  This year, my reflection led to a decision to get into shape before summer.  I bought a new journal set aside to keep track of my exercise and eating habits.  I set this week's goal of doing 75 minutes of exercise a day.  But with the storm set to hit us by noon, I had to get out and go walking early.  I was on my third mile when the snow began.  I turned toward home when I heard it, that lovely sound that I know from years of doing the annual Midwest Crane Count sponsored by the International Crane Foundation.  

I looked up and there he was, a sandhill crane, flying into the snow to get to the cranes' best resting stop, the Shiocton marshes on Van Patten Road.

Never mind the robins who have been around for a week.  They are foolish birds who never seem to know when winter is holding on. Their arrival is meaningless.

But the sandhill crane arrives when spring is really on its way so I know this is the last big snowstorm.  I know that in another week, the big tundra swans will be flying over along with the big V's of Canada geese.  And I know that shortly afterwards the migratory birds will be in the Shiocton marsh.

In the middle of April, the crane count will be on and about the same time, Gary and I will be called to guard sturgeon on the free flowing Wolf River.

Now that is spring for sure.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The shamrock plant Evan gave to me yesterday is blooming today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Naughty Children, All of Us

I found out that my seven-year-old grandson got into trouble in school.  A note was sent home.  It seems he had a book on his lap and was reading it when he was supposed to be paying attention to the book they were working on during his reading class.  His excuse, he had already read THAT book.

I'm afraid I didn't say too much about that because his father Chris was there.  Chris did exactly the same thing when he was that age. He, too, was an early reader.

And what about this grandmother?  I was the third girl in my family.  My older sisters always brought their school books home from the little one room school on French Road. I pounced on them. When I reached first grade myself (there was no kindergarten in those days) I already knew how to read and I was writing cursive.  When the teacher found out she was angry and told my parents they should never have taught me.
It was a big surprise to them.

I, too, used to hide books from the teachers until the fourth grade when Mrs. Koepp, an enlightened teacher, realized I had read every book in the little school. She started bringing me boxes of books from the Seymour library. By the seventh grade I was regularly excused from reading classes to do other projects.

The same thing was true all the way through high school. I had read all the textbooks before the first day of any class.  I was almost always reading something else when called on.  I got very good at watching the pages that the other students were on and flipping to the right spot, all the time reading something more interesting cleverly hidden behind other books or on my lap.

I told Gary about Evan's problem. Gary had the same problem in his school.  He said the solution was simple:  Evan has to get better at hiding the books he's reading.  He may be right.

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Speaking of reading, don't miss Bettyann Moore's story at Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  "Still Life With Leprechauns  is a perfect story for St. Patrick's Day.

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I won't be writing a blog tomorrow.  St. Patrick's Day is also my birthday so I'm taking the day off.

A Weekend Just for Me...Sort Of

We began the day with snow, though it never amounted to much and melted immediately. Gary said we should go to Appleton and take care of errands there. 

We began with his haircut.  He and his father before him have been going to the same barbershop since the 1970's. He comes from a family that doesn't like change. He needed a haircut, he came from Illinois to get it at the barber he knew. While he was being shorn, I walked along College Avenue, stopping at the City Center when the snow/rain became too intense. It wasn't all that cold, but College Avenue often has a strong wind that can chill a walker to the bone. I found that a shop in the City Center that used to have great ice cream now was a sandwich shop.  Sad that. Even sadder, the special of the day was corned beef and cabbage. I was born on St. Patrick's Day but I've never liked it.  

Next we went to the Fox River Mall where we went to the cafe court for lunch. We like the chicken teriyaki there. We always get one portion and split it.  For exercise, we walked around the mall. One circuit is one mile so we've often used the mall to exercise. 

Now we come to the true reason for this trip. We went to the Apple Creek RV center so I could see the camper Gary wants to buy. It would be much bigger than the one we have. What he wanted me to see was the little room at the end which would serve as an office for me. He said we might want to someday live in the forests and I would need a place to write. We shall see where that leads.  

We bought groceries at Aldi's, always looking for bargains. From there, we went to Walmart, except I didn't go inside. Instead I checked Payless Shoes to see if there were any shoes that I might want.  I did find a pair that would be comfortable but not in my size.  

Finally, we went to Goodwill where I found a book I had been searching for, a journal of sorts with some inspirational ideas.  

All in all, a satisfactory day.   

Recycling Mishap

It's not always easy.

This morning I put out the recycling which mostly consists of Rascal's empty cat food cans.  There weren't a lot so I didn't use the big recycling bin. Instead I put out the kitchen waste basket, carefully putting it to one side of the driveway.

Then I went inside to get ready for my performance at the Clintonville Senior Center. I took a shower, did my makeup and put on my storytelling costume.  I packed the autoharp, some of my books, and other paraphernalia in the car.  I was in the house checking over my purse when I got a phone call about another performance.  I worked out the dates and time with the librarian. I finished up in ten minutes giving me a little less than the hour I needed to get to Clintonville.  I went back to the car, started it and backed out....right over the waste basket.  In the ten minutes I was in the house the guys in the recycling truck had come and gone, tossing the wastebasket in the middle of the driveway right behind me.

The wastebasket was jammed under the car and I couldn't pull it out.  I tried driving up a snow bank, thinking that would give me the space to loosen the it. That's didn't work.  I tried backing forward and backward.  Nothing worked.

I finally decided to drive to the nearest service station for help. The dragged wastebasket made an awful racket.  I was a few yards from the gas station when the basket let go. I went back, picked it up and threw the ruined and unrecognizable basket in the back of the car. The plastic basket will be in the next recycling day, two weeks from now.  

With a little speeding, I made it to the performance.  Tonight Gary is in Appleton for a meeting and afterwards, will pick up a new kitchen bin.