Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 17:46
Looks Like Spring
It's starting to look like spring outside. It is cruel of Mother Nature to make it look like spring, though, because true spring is a long ways away yet.
Since Saturday, we've had temperatures in the upper 30s and to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, along with some rain on Monday, so that quite a lot of what little snow we had on the ground has melted. The neighbor's plowed field is brown dirt again, and the hayfield is now mostly brown stubble again.
Since late Monday night, we have had strong, almost gale force winds out of the south. The weather forecast says the temperature will drop below freezing again in the next few days. Much of the ice has melted on the paths around the yard and down to the barn, but the driveway is really icy now.
We had our mid-winter meatball dinner at church on Sunday, and the turnout was surprisingly good. I think it was because the weather was warm -- that is, it was not below zero -- and the sun was shining. Last year the turnout was quite low because the weather was extremely cold. You just never know what kind of weather you're going to get in February, that's for sure.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, February 07, 2009, 07:46
Lovely Day
It was a lovely day here at Rural Route 2 on Friday with a high of 34 degrees.
Even in the morning, when the temperature was in the 20s with the sun shining, it felt balmy. After I finished cleaning up horse manure and dumping it on the pile by Isabelle's gate, I took the brush out of my back pocket and started to brush Isabelle while she ate her hay.
My big black tom cat, Rocky, who does not like to go outside when it is very cold, had decided he wanted to venture out when I brought the horse feed out of the basement. While I brushed Isabelle, Rocky came out to the pasture. He felt so good about the warmer temperature and the sunshine, that he wound himself around my feet and around Isabelle's feet.
"Watch out, Rocky," I said. "Isabelle has big feet -- and you don't."
All at once, Rocky flopped down on the ground by Isabelle's left front foot. He wrapped his front paws around her leg and began to bite her ankle while he kicked with his back legs. Rocky will do this if he flops down by your feet and you reach out and tickle his belly. But I had never seen him go after Isabelle like that.
Isabelle stopped chewing her hay. Her eyes widened a little and she quickly picked up her foot to get it out of Rocky's reach.
Rocky suddenly realized that the "prey" he had attacked was a bit too big for him and scampered away.
Isabelle calmly went back to nibbling her hay.
Horses are prey animals and react by instinct, so I would have thought that a cat attacking Isabelle's leg would have sent her for a loop. But it didn't. Thank goodness.
Later on, after I had finished my chores, I got a cup of coffee for myself and sat on Charlie's rock in the backyard for a few minutes. After we had buried our Springer Spaniel, Charlie, last summer, we put a large rock over his grave. The snow has melted off the south side of the rock, so there was a small space where I could perch in the sunshine. It has been a long time since I have sat on Charlie's rock with a cup of coffee -- three months probably, if not more.
While I was sitting on the rock, Rocky came up in the backyard. By that time, his feet must have been cold because he jumped up on the rock and then jumped up on my back and sat on my shoulders. I could feel his cold feet through my coat.
I know it has been a long, cold winter when 25 degrees in the sunshine feels heavenly. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
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