April 25,2007

On the very first day of spring the resident chipmunk appeared, chestnut rumped and cheerful. He rushed around as though carrying a big banner reading –“spring is here – rejoice, rejoice!” And oh how wrong he was – how dreadfully wrong. I know Yeats said that April was the cruelest month, but did it have to be that cruel? I keep a five-year nature and garden diary (sporadically I must admit) but for so many years the weeping cherry has been in full bloom by this time and mine isn’t even showing color. The scene is brightened though by two Corylopsis – one by the big pond and one near the walled garden. Their creamy yellow bells show up so well against the prevailing tan and rate a detour to see them every evening. (When I want to check and see if my mind is failing I summon up two bushes, similar in syllables but very different – Corylopsis and Caryopteris. The former related to the witch hazel, the latter not related to anything as far as I know.)

The tree swallows have been to check out nesting sites, right on time as in other years and a towhee stopped on his way through. If you have a hummingbird feeder it is time to put it out. It is hard to tell when those tiny avian scraps will make their exhausted way to your remembered source of nectar.

On a trip to the dump –sorry, transfer station – I spotted a woman about to throw away a small aquarium with a cracked side. Perfect for the terrarium I had been wanting! So off I went to Rick Peckham who guided my choice of tiny plants and I added some little ceramic figures – Alice’s red queen who looks as though she were walking with her pet rooster, a lovely dragonfly, a tiny turtle and a small duck with a hollowed out back which I filled with water. Nest step was to find some live creatures to live there. I turned over some stones hoping to find a fat salamander but found what I thought was a skink, it was so long and slender. So in it went and I have been feeding it mealworms and tiny crickets. I have occasionally found tiny traces of dirt in the duck but this morning what a thrill. There it was taking a bath in the duck. I was able to look at it with a magnifying glass through the side and then checked my Stokes Nature Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles written by Tom Tyning. Lo and behold, there was a drawing of this little skinny creature with its protruding black shiny eyes and to my pleasure I find it is a redback salamander. So off to the pet store for more tiny crickets as I think it likes these better than mealworms.

I end with my yearly plea – please don’t tidy up your walls and hedgerows, give our songbirds a chance to raise the next generation. And my yearly plaint – now that the forsythia is blooming look at those which have been trimmed into balls and those which look like yellow flames, decide which you like best and be so guided.

March 15th, 2007

I had been so busy coping with that brutal cold wind that I completely forgot it was ever going to stop. So when I heard red winged blackbirds it came as a wonderful surprise and I am now enjoying these milder days that remind me that there really will be a spring. Seeds have been planted in the greenhouse and some have even sprouted. It is always a thrill to check on them every morning and see what has happened overnight. I am trying sweet peas again but now growing them in peat pots, as they don’t like to be transplanted. These pots will be ripped off and thrown away when I go to put them in the ground after the last frost, for me the second week in May. I have high hopes as this variety is supposed to be heat tolerant but I know not rabbit tolerant so I shall have to think of something.

Every winter we mow the fields to keep the Rosa multiflora and bittersweet from taking over. This can only be done when the ground is frozen and that was certainly no problem this winter. Although they look really naked to me, the red-shouldered hawks are enjoying the clear view, and almost every day I can hear them and see them in the trees around the house. One morning I looked out of a second story window and there was a hawk sitting directly in front of me over the bird feeders. One squirrel was tempting fate and running on branches about four feet away, but the hawk didn’t even turn its head. A blue jay was incensed and even dive-bombed it, the second time hitting the top of the hawk’s head and even pulling up a tuft of feathers.

January 20th, 2007

Well here we are, a month into winter. Nothing to compare with the rest of the country thank goodness. As far as flora goes there is not much to report. The four foolish spring blooming shrubs, which burst forth in December now, wish they hadn’t. Curiously the winter blooming Chinese witch hazel weren’t beguiled.
Fauna is a different matter. The trapping and evicting of squirrels is going on merrily. But peanut butter appeals to more than squirrels. One morning, before sunrise, I looked down on the trap from upstairs and thought it looked awful full and furry. I went right down and there was a very cranky raccoon. I certainly was glad there was a metal plate on top of the trap to push down on while I pulled up on the release end, otherwise I would have had my fingers badly bitten. She or he took some time in leaving but the next time I am serving an eviction notice. During the last week two of my bird feeders have fallen and only a raccoon would be heavy enough to do this.
The big excitement occurred early one afternoon when I just happened to look out on my little fishpond. There were ripples originating from the far shore –very unusual I thought as there is a bank and a stonewall protecting that side from wind. I waited and then I thought my heart would burst as a sleek wet head rose from the water. An otter! Please don’t tell me that I was seeing a mink or a muskrat as I was raised with an otter so I know what they look like. We had one as a house-pet. It swam around, rested a bit, swam some more and then left. The icing on the cake came when my old Golden came back from our evening stroll a different way. She showed me where the otter had crossed the drainage ditch, come down through the fields, clambered into the walled garden, and then come out through the entrance and gone into the fish pool. I am sure there are no goldfish left but that is quite all right.

December 31st, 2006

The squirrels are back so it is time to get out the trap again. I think they must have taken a quick trip south of the border and come back with a taste for chilies as the cayenne pepper no longer deters them from the black oil seeds. There are three of them and I think they are siblings as they all have a white patch on their outer ears – perhaps a genetic gift from the beautiful white squirrel that was around here several years ago. One of them is a female, about to be a mother. She tugs and tugs at the dried day lily stems and then carries a mouthful up to the top of a tree covered in ivy. I must remove her soon so she can make another nest.

Most of us are used to seeing robins in the winter, but cocking their heads and pulling up worms in December is something to remember. They also stripped the red-berried winterberry, the one closest to the house and didn’t touch the one across the field. Maybe they are saving that one for February. If you feed birds you might like to try saving your eggshells. After you have a bowlful, put them in a cooling oven on a cookie sheet. (They scrunch up better when they are dry.) Then put them in a bag and mash them into bits. Somehow or other the birds know the crushed shells contain useful minerals and your little pile will be gone in two days.

Last year I read about stunting leaf growth on paper white narcissus bulbs with alcohol so I tried it. Unfortunately my camera isn’t speaking to my computer at this point so I can’t send you a photo, but the results are amazing; a white fluffy mass of flowers well above the leaves. They look so good you might think it was an ad in a bulb catalogue. If you want to try it here’s how. Buy the cheapest gin or vodka that you can. If the label reads 40% you want to dilute it with water to 4% that would be nine quarter cups of water to one quarter cup of alcohol. (Bourbon, Scotch, Rye or Rum won’t work). Of course you are using pebbles or clear marbles (try A.C.Moore or Michaels) to support the bulbs.

This amazing warm fall and early winter have been very beneficial for our heating bills but it has also brought four of my spring flowering bushes into bloom. This would be a good time to force forsythia as it is on the brink of bursting out all over. I checked with two local orchardists to see if they were worried about their apples and peaches breaking dormancy but all seems well there.