Blotchy is good

The goldfinches are getting blotchy. That's a sure sign of spring. If you know nothing about male goldfinches, they turn a dull kind of olive green/brown for the winter months, and then when spring is approaching they begin to gradually turn to a very brilliant beautiful yellow until the fall when they will once again 'blotchify' and change into their winter garb.

I noticed some other promising signs of spring last week. Several mornings my ear was suddenly tuned to hear that melodic male cardinal song that is silent throughout the winter. Normally through the winter, groups of cardinals have gathered at my feeders - a mixture of males and females - and though they chased each other a little, they were still tolerant of one another while feeding. Last week, while still in the thick of cold, snowy weather, I caught a glimpse of 4 male cardinals chasing each other around the trees, with one dominant male returning, paired with a female and the two of them ate together at one of the feeders. Lucky them to have exclusive rights to this lady's feeders. They will never go hungry!!  For Richard's stunning pictures of cardinals in his At the Water blog, click here and here.

Are you as fascinated at 'Instinct' as I am??

Instinct: "an inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species"

Inborn.        Tendency.             

So, you mean birds don't have calendars back at their roosting spots where they settle in for the night? They don't pull out their Audubon Calendar and say, 'Oh my gosh! It's almost March and I don't have a mate yet!' But really....if it's still cold and wintry and they were just born in the summertime, how the heck would they know that this cold stuff is all going to end in the next couple of months - it's all they've known for half their life -  and they have responsibilities to find mates, drop eggs, and raise babies? And when it's nest building time, and they've never built one, nor (obviously) seen their mother build the one they were raised in for all of two weeks, how do they know which materials are 'only' used for the type of nest their kind makes? Nests are all uniquely different for each type of bird. What if a cardinal starts building the way a wren would - with all the wrong materials and in the wrong place. Everyone knows it's all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.


It's why spring fascinates me every year. It happens.....faithfully. 

The cold...the dark...the brown....the damp....and the dead......

all becomes the warmth....the vibrant....the colours.....the scents.....the life! 

And it's why birds fascinate me. They are atune to it all, even before it begins. Their songs begin in earnest before life bursts forth and the melody of the earth begins. 

You may think things are pretty quiet.....but tune your ear to the melody. Don't miss the show! Grab a front seat and get ready to watch the fascination of creation in action. 

  The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
  Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
 They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19 : 1-4 (The Bible)

No more

Now I ask you girls.....is there any better Valentine's gift than a brand new, sparkling clean toilet?
That works?

Look at this beauty.

No more leaving the lid off the tank indefinitely and pulling the chain to make it flush (maybe).

No more desperately mopping up the floor when the toilet decides to overflow instead of flush.

No more 'guests' choosing to go somewhere else to use the toilet rather than chance using ours.

No more.

I had one other little surprise on Valentine's Day. I saw a robin! I had heard him a few days earlier, and though I'm quite sure our robins don't leave us for the winter, I was still so encouraged to see him!

Soon there will be

no more snow,
no more ice,
no more cold,
no more short days.
No more.

Just warmth and spring bulbs and lilacs and toilets that flush.

Heavenly.

Freeze!

There are some moments in time that I just wish I could freeze and stay in that moment for a very long time. Like when my kids were little and said (and sang) all those phrases from a wonderful childlike perspective.

"...Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the ants can go play...." , or

"All things are popsicle, only believe"

I miss all that stuff. Sometimes.

Right now I want to make time stand still and stay in the month of May (but without the ridiculous chill we felt this week, after being spoiled with an extra early spring arrival). Although it's a month of memories of when my Dad passed away, it's still a month I wish would last for at least 3 months so I can drink in the beauty around us.

Remember this????

As much as we complained, all that moisture and insulation has done a world of good and my plants have never looked healthier (except for the grass!).

Stuff I love about May:

Brilliant tulips and creeping phlox.

Woodland trilliums, daffodils, bleeding hearts, and Solomon's seal.

Clouds of Forget-Me-Nots that remind me of my Dad.

Magnificent magnolia trees - those are the ones whose blooms look like giant tulips.

Intoxicating fragance of fruit and crabapple tree blossoms, lilacs, and lily of the valley.

Robin and cardinal songs that wake me before 5 am.

Bumble bees and butterflies.

Green emerging everywhere from what was dead, hard, cold ground.

Warm breezes (except this past weekend!!).

Chipmunks.

And so much more.

Can't we just stop and stay right here for 3 more months with none of that summer humidity that makes us long to bury our face in a snowdrift?

I have one ulterior motive for my longings. I'm eyeing the plague of 65 trillion maple keys just waiting to helicopter their way down and drop over everything we own, in addition to many neighbouring properties. This picture is a teeny shot from two old massive messy maple trees in our backyard. If you think I exaggerate, come and help us rake, sweep and bag them as they completely cover our car, our driveway, our deck, our sidewalks, grass, gardens, and begin to root into little trees everywhere they land. Come enjoy a BBQ on our deck as they fill up your plate and add a mapley essence to your food. While you're at it, you can try to clear your chair of them before you're seated and then continue to pick them out of your hair as we chat. Just shake them out of your clothes and sandals when you leave - better to leave them here with the rest than take them home with you....or worse, begin to sprout in your clothing. When you drive away in your key covered car, you will bless all the neighbours for miles around with a share of our bounty.

I admit it was a totally cool plan that God had to ensure trees repopulated the earth. If I were God (Lord help us all), I would have just allowed about 20-25 keys per maple tree. But I suppose that would bring the wrath of the squirrels who like to eat and store as many of the seeds as they can. More power to them. Less to clean up....about 500 less.

The snow was beautiful indeed...but in my estimation, not nearly as lovely as these...

The signs...

Sounds like this weekend will be warmish and springlike. Can't wait. The signs of spring are everywhere.....the Toronto Maple Leafs are out of the playoffs...the Blue Jays are warmin' up.... And here's what I've been observing around the neighbourhood over the last couple of weeks....




Shoots are poking through the snow.



Dozens of robins have been surveying for patches of lawn appearing............


and then snatching up worms. (Who knew worms could be found when the ground's still cold?)




This mourning dove has diligently been gathering nesting materials from my garden and bringing them to this tree. Lord knows we need more doves in the neighbourhood (the hawk agrees).

Chip just woke up from a very long nap beneath all that snow in the front garden. Hope he's grateful for the winter stash I provided.




Olive coloured goldfinches are slowly changing their wardrobes and donning their bright summer yellow jackets.










Cedar waxwings gobble up crab apples but anticipate tasty spring blossoms.



And most notably, RRROLL UP THE RIM TO WIN is winding down with more losses than wins.



Would anyone like my free donut tabs?

Hope springs

As I write this, there is yet another winter storm warning...the snow and ice is soon to start pelting the windows and ground around us. Seems that we've had one of these storms every week or at least every other! Strangely (VERY strangely!) I am not sick of winter yet. I have loved the changing landscape of new fallen snow, instead of the usual mud and puddles that our winters have seemed to become. It's just been visually more beautiful and I really don't mind more snow....until April. Once that third week of April hits I will have a yearning to drink in the aroma of hyacinths, lily of the valley, and lilacs...and every snowfall after that will be an irritation.

Hard to believe, just yesterday on my day off, I sat outside on the deck for 30 glorious minutes, face tilted toward the sunshine, soaking in the rays. The breeze was actually warm on my face, and smelled of spring. I listened to the rush of melting snow flushing through the eavestroughs as I basked in the sun. As my dog rubbed her face in the snow and rolled over onto her back to wriggle in the cold stuff she so loves, I pictured the seeds, once dead, now sprouting green shoots, yet still unseen beneath the blanketed earth. Bulbs anxiously await below the surface to push their leaves, now forming, toward the sun. Birds are beginning to sing with more vigour. Yes, the earth is waiting...hoping...for the lengthening of days, the turning of the season, and the warmth of the sun.

Are you feeling cold... gloomy....dead? No hope right now that you can see? Take heart. There is an answer....life burgeoning below the surface...you can't see it....but it's ready to burst forth in its own time. Keep your face turned toward the Son. In due time, hope will become sight, the hard ground will soften, and your senses will come alive in the warmth of His presence.

Spring's a comin'

I just saw my first robin of the season an hour ago! In this neck of the woods, robins are probably hiding all winter, but when you see them on the lawn, it's a sure sign of spring around the corner!

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.

Henry Van Dyke
Fisherman's Luck (1899)