Any Day Now

Late January and early February are difficult times for me. Even though this winter has been dry and mild it still has gone on too long and it feels like spring will never arrive. Last week we finally had rain. It seemed almost like an early spring evening, warm and rainy. By early morning a cold front had moved in and the day finished with ice and snow. Back into the deep freeze again for how many more weeks?
Early this morning I decided to go out for coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Panera’s. I love their egg, cheese and sausage on ciabatta bread. As I passed the containment pond the usual gaggle of Canadian geese were crowding the spillway. The geese used to appear in late autumn and stay over the winter and be gone by spring. They are now year round residents and are almost pests to some of the people that live along the shore of the pond.

But up at the wooded end of the pond, which is always quiet and secluded, I saw two pair of ducks. For the past several years this same two pair have been returning to our pond in early spring and raising broods of ducklings. They usually stay on until their ducklings can fend for themselves and then they all disappear in early summer to wherever they spend the rest of their year. I know it is the same two pair because one of the females has a very distinctive patch of white feathers along her neck.

It was good to welcome them back and I will take their appearance, over the word of the local weather forecaster, that it is now time for spring to commence.

  

Spring Break 2012

It’s Monday, first day back to work after spring break week can be a difficult day. For me it is always hard to get to sleep on Sunday night. I’m rested from the week with my sleeping times all askew and I can’t help from worrying about the new week to come. Even if there is nothing to fret about I still can create something in my mind to occupy it and keep me awake.

Then early Monday morning the alarm goes off. The tendency is to hit the snooze, at least until the sun rises. However, this morning I popped awake and was ready to go. I think it has something to do with the beautiful spring weather we are having and also because I had such a wonderful spring break.

We did things a little different this year for spring break. Instead of flying off to a southern latitude, renting a car, spending lots of money and trying to do way too much, we just took a leisurely road trip.

We left Kansas City on Friday morning and drove to Chicago. We pampered ourselves by staying at the old historic Palmer House Hotel. Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day we walked down to the Chicago River and watched them dye it green.

Then it was on to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Columbus Ave. Followed by an afternoon of green beer, corned beef, and fish and chips.

All topped off with a late night deluxe martini at the Palmer House bar. Then we tumbled into bed happy and exhausted.

Sunday was a travel day to Cleveland. For the rest of the week we were going to be staying with relatives so it was all easy on the pocket book. In addition, we decided to try to eat light, fresh snacks and then spurge on one big meal a day.

After a day in Cleveland we were then on to Columbus and on Thursday we made the long haul home so we could be back for the finish of the Kansas City Science Fair at Union Station Friday morning.

It was a great trip. The weather was fantastic. All the relatives were well and a delight to be with. All the cities were fun.

We picked out one thing in each city we wanted to concentrate on. Of course in Chicago it was St. Patrick’s festivities. In Cleveland, we went over in the old Ohio City neighborhood and visited the West Side Market, followed by a Middle Eastern deli lunch at Nate’s Deli and Restaurant. In Columbus we visited two micro-distilleries (Watershed Distillery and Middle West Spirits) and a microbrewery; then sampled their fare on High Street near The Ohio State University.

The only downside was I caught a cold on the way home and felt terrible for two days afterward. But it was short-lived and now I am back and ready for a great week.

A Hint of Spring and "A Sand County Almanac"

January can be a long, cold month here in northern Missouri. Then we begin to have a few days that give you hope that spring will return. On these days I begin to think of Aldo Leopold and his little masterpiece “A Sand County Almanac”. Leopold, known as the father of wildlife ecology, was at the forefront of conservation ethics.

Aldo Leopold taught at the University of Wisconsin and wrote from his weekend retreat, an overused sand hill Wisconsin farm. ”The Almanac” was published in 1949 a year after his death. It is a collect of writings made of his thoughts while working his old farm and other essays on the then emerging field of conservation ecology. His slim volume has become a nature writing classic similar in status to Thoreau’s “Walden”.

The first chapter “January” is an essay about a skunk that has awoken from its winter slumber to a world of melting snow and lengthening days. The skunk begins a journey across the farm to find food, leaving a trail which is investigated by the tracker Leopold. Each January I find myself pulling out my copy of the almanac and beginning to read it again. I usually only make it through the a few chapters before I put it away for another year. But just as longer days and warmer temperatures make gardeners get out their seed catalogs, I too have to have my spring fix of Aldo Leopold.