FEBRUARY & MARCH MUSINGS

February-2012

Feb. 4, 2012

Last week started the coldest average temperature of winter, with 31F.as the high and 12F.as low, the low points of winter. These averages will hold about two weeks
before the averages begin to rise, rise ever so slowly with the lengthening
days. Of course this year has been so mild the worse is yet to be.

Slowly we drift towards spring, each night a little
shorter, each day a little longer. Day by day noon shadows shorten as higher in
the sky daily our sun travels. Although the pace is slow, inevitably we know,
winter will surely go, not soon enough although.

Feb.7, Ave.: hi 32, low 13

Feb. 16: Ave.: hi 33, low 14

Feb. 19: Ave.: hi 34, low 14

March-2012

Start of month: Ave.: hi 38, low 18

Winter that wasn’t slowly gives in to spring. Today it is above 60 with pleasant breeze and full sun.

Went to the brook today, ice still along the water course and is very thin. I should have been earlier to catch some better light but I wasn’t sure what of interest I would
find. The thin ice and frozen rills were interesting. The air trapped between
the water and the ice were mesmerizing, like the water’s shadow on the stream
bed in the fall, but in reverse. Slowly slipping stream bubbles, the trapped
air drifts with the current, silent.

Still so very still the afternoon sun, warm the air warmer still the sun as spring
delights in winter’s passing. Winter was easy and may not be totally done, but
the winter’s months are now gone. Days of equal length will soon give way to
longer spring days as again northward the sun the equator crosses.
Now the sun is becoming blocked by a thickening veil of clouds drifting in from the west, the air begins to stir; the best of today is done. Tonight will usher in warm rain, an all-day rain tomorrow that will change to snow as another front passes. Moods, like the weather, are especially dependent upon frontal passages at this time of the
year, for the changes are dramatic. Sometimes I think it dangerous to be aware,
for powerless we are to affect the fronts, but powerful are they to affect us.

And now, ten minutes later the sun is bright, but the sky is not blue, the air is still,
not a pine needle’s breath disturbs the quiet. A mourning dove alights, the
flies off, but only goes a few branches away. Another alights nearby, then both
away. They are the first I’ve seen this spring. A couple of days ago a group of
robins were busying the season, squabbling in the bushes and small trees. Now
they are not around, but we’ve had a few bitter cold nights, one even in the
low teens, since then and maybe they were unable to survive. ????

The pair of mourning doves just landed on my lawn swing having apparently circled around in the woods checking out the changes in the neighborhood. I’m sure they’ve been here before, they seem to be quite comfortable here!! I was just about to
go for a swing too. Oh well they’ll be off soon!