Sunday, April 12, 2009, 06:38
Poised
We are at that time of year when we are poised between a winter-dead world and a world that will soon be much greener.
I can see faint tinges of green in the lawn. And the grass is starting to grow along the foundation of the house. The irises by the basement wall are two or three inches high. And the daylilies, the ones that have survived the drought, are about an inch high. The trees are beginning to bud as well and there are faint smudges of color in the hills around Rural Route 2: red for the maples, a pale green for the aspens.
I am delighted to see, too, that the rhubarb is beginning to sprout. The rhubarb plant by the corner of the barn has three tiny, miniscule bright-red nubbins poking up from the earth.
The landscape is beginning to wake up after its long, cold, hard slumber.
Sebastian
Enough frost has gone out of the ground now that we were able to bury my old friend Sebastian on Saturday afternoon. He died December 4, and Randy built a pine box for him. We put the pine box behind the lilacs for the winter. I cried while we were digging the hole and while we lowered the box into the ground and while we covered up Sebastian's grave. It still does not seem possible that my old tabby kitty cat is gone. I rescued Sebastian and his two sisters in 1992 when their mother was killed when they were only an hour or two old. I told Randy we were wimpy to be crying over a cat because he was, after all, just a cat. Except he wasn't just a cat. He was part of my family. Rest in peace, Sebastian.
This summer I will take two of my old galvanized tubs, and I will plant flowers in them and put them out among the graves: Sebastian, Duke, Little Simon Peter, Winifred, Guinevere, Tiger Paw Thompson, Nightshade, and my dog, Lady. They each have a sandstone rock to mark the spot, but I would like flowers out there, too. And I will also put some flowers out in a pot for our Springer Spaniel, Charlie. It really does not seem possible that they are all gone.
Wild turkeys
Saturday evening while we were feeding the horses, a flock of wild turkeys was out at the end of the hayfield. Even though they were five acres away, we could tell there were several toms in the bunch. At that distance, we could still see their tails fanned as they strutted around.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, we had gone to town to get horse feed. As we came closer to the corner right by Isabelle's pasture, a wild turkey sprinted across the road. As we entered the driveway, I could see another tom in Isabelle's pasture.
Isabelle was watching the turkey closely, but it wasn't stopping her from eating her hay. Kajun, on the other hand, had abandoned his hay and was staring over the fence.
We sat in the truck in the driveway for a while to watch the turkey. Eventually he meandered out through the pines and across the road.
As we went down the driveway toward the house, I saw my tabby cat, Bobby Cat, rise from her crouched position in the old grass down in Isabelle's pasture. She had, I surmised, been watching the turkey, too. Stalking it most likely, if I know Bobby Cat. When she was a kitten, her mother caught wild rabbits to bring in the barn for them. She also caught a grouse once. I was picking grouse feathers out of the hay for months after that. Bobby Cat learned very well how to hunt. It was while her mother was taking Bobby and her siblings out to hunt that the mother and other kittens disappeared. Only Bobby Cat made it back to the barn, a frightened small kitten who was all on her own.
All about me
I am still coughing and hacking and my nose is running and I don't feel very perky yet. I feel like I can hardly drag myself around. Oh, well. Whatever. The virus will have to give up sooner or later. I hope.
Lady bugs
Randy and I spent another half an hour in the basement Saturday morning vacuuming up MORE lady bugs. They are on everything. And they were really active Saturday. The basement was alive with them. Ick.
While we were in town, we got a new foam filter and a new paper filter for the shop vac. At least we won't be blowing so much dust around now while we are at the business of vacuuming up lady bugs.
I keep telling the Asian Lady Beetles -- you found your way into the house last fall, why can't you find your way outside now? Hmmmmm?
I found more of them, too, Saturday afternoon in the south bedroom window upstairs. Good thing we have our trusty little shop vac.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, April 10, 2009, 04:02
Spring Days
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week have been lovely spring days -- bright, sunny, breezy. Sparkly days, I like to think of them as -- when the sunshine is so bright that everything seems to sparkle.
The temperature was a little cool on Monday with highs in the 30s. Tuesday and Wednesday it warmed up to the 40s in the afternoon. Thursday the high was in the 50s.
And what have I been doing on these lovely spring days?
I have been TOO SICK TO DO ANYTHING. Coughing. Sneezing. Coughing some more. Sneezing. Blowing my nose. My nose is so sore now that the skin is starting to crack. I've been putting Carmex and Vicks on my nose to try to help it feel better. Sometimes when I have a coughing fit, I have to double over to ease the pain in my stomach muscles. At least I hope it is my stomach muscles and it is not my ribs.
You might know. I waited all winter for lovely weather. And now this. I can't be sick. I have work to do! There are piles of horse manure waiting to be hauled out to the hayfield before the hay (with any luck at all) starts to grow.
Still, the grass appears to have a green tinge to it! And I have noticed Isabelle out in her pasture, nosing around, waiting for the grass to grow. Kajun does not have so much pasture. If he eats too much green grass, his feet bother him with founder. But I have noticed him with his head through the fence, nibbling at what he can find.
The buds are coming out more on the trees, too. The hills have a red tinge to them here and there from the maple buds. And the lilac buds are getting bigger, too. And the aspen buds. A few of my daylilies, the ones that did not die out from the drought, are starting to poke up out of the ground as well. And there is some grass growing along the basement wall on the south side of the house.
I'm going to sign off now. It's time for more cough medicine. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph