O.K., it’s Thursday, this must be springtime.
Holy cow! What a wild one! Haul out the long johns, Maudie, the daffodils done froze! And what does the Old Farmer say? Not much. But you’ll be happy to know that on April 18, 2009, Aaron Caissie set a world record by balancing 17 spoons on his face. Now there is a skill set!
I went out last week —one of the times when it was warm, remember—to poke around in the back yard to assess what might need to be done, and I have decided that this place is a big-time cafeteria setting. There are nut trees in the back, so the squirrels, when they’re not raiding the bird feeders, are sitting on various branches( front OR back yard) to chow down and fling their remainder nutshells all about; they litter. But HOW do they get those shells open? Walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts…they’re all pretty tough to crack without the use of an iron anvil and a major hammer. Yet the squirrel, and maybe a chipmunk or two, can get those buggers open using just their little, spidery fingers/toes…in addition to some prodigious teeth. What’s THAT about? Lots of the shells show up with gnawed holes in them but plenty are just perfectly halved with the insides gone. I often save them, just because I think that they are so elegant-looking. What a design! Rough on the outside, smooth on the inside, curved and mysterious. Had I any rustic craft chops, I would surely mount some sort of a display but so far, I’m just collecting.
Anyway, I’m out pulling up invasive plants—there are more of them all of the time, it seems, result of “global connections”, no doubt…that and STUPID people, the same ones that have Burmese pythons as pets then when the reptiles get too big(that would be about six inches, in my book) they turn them loose in the Everglades, where they have no predators and proceed to terrorize and devour the native flora and fauna and grow to enormous size—and a mosquito(family : Culicidae) who had waked especially for the occasion settled down for a sip of my vital fluids made the mistake of stomping his feet hard enough that I actually noticed him. Smack! End of meal.
The forget-me-nots are coming out to take the place of the crocuses, which are on their last legs. The snowdrops must be chuckling at the recent turn of events…either chuckling or shivering. The spring beauties are showing up in singles and pairs, scattered around. Some little blue-flowered spikes have appeared in places that I did not put them. The two volunteer Easter lilies have just peeked their shoots up to get the lay of the land but they are surely not going to make it to see The Bunny any time soon. There seem to be some ex officio excavations around where SOME critter has dug up bulbs for a midnight, or mid winter, snack of some sort. Not much like cold pizza but, hey, no delivery charges.
The flowering crabapples to the west of the drive apparently were not to the taste of any of the local scavengers; the deflated fruit is lying around on the ground. SOMEBODY must eat them eventually, otherwise, I’d have little tree-lets all over the place. So far, this has not happened but I’m keeping my eyes on the possibility. The berry bushes must be supporting wildlife of some kind, because I sure didn’t get a single pie’s worth last season. Some of them were attacked by a mosaic mildew infestation, which I hope to get rid of at some point. In the meantime, I’m still looking for pick-your-own patches to restock my freezer.
Pussy willows are showing their catkins .
Speaking of which…anybody want a kitten? One of the porch kitties is doing a calico caricature of the Goodyear Blimp and looks as though we’re going to hear the pitter-patter of little paws pretty soon. She’d love to sneak inside to make her maternal donation but so far I’ve managed to shut the door fast enough to forestall that ambition. The local candidate for paternity seems to be mostly black but there are also gray tiger and pale orange/ginger ardent swains in the neighborhood. Heck, she could have been hooking up on Face Book, for all I know. Adoption line forms to the left.
Not long ‘til May. Go to a track meet. Plant a tree.
