waiting for the other shoe

From: Caroline
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 11:17 AM
Subject: waiting for the other shoe

Last night when I went out to secure the chickens I could smell the honeysuckle - even though it was below freezing. During the day, there was a different sound from the little birds, just a subtle change in their notes but enough to make me realize that we are marching toward spring. As I write, the first red winged blackbirds are on the feeder. Only one has his red shoulder patches showing and I think he must be the alpha male. Must ask Dunbar if this is possible. But of course we still have a week to go in February, the coldest and nastiest month of the year, and so it is possible that we can have some severe weather, but where is it?

Two of the little hens are busily laying eggs every day. Nice nesting boxes, built according to specs, are all ready for them in their little house, but guess what? Of course they won't use them, instead they rush around the house uttering plaintive little cries until I open the garage door. Then one of them makes a dash for the hanging cupboard which held a lot of garden stuff. They threw all of that down on the floor, and when I put a nice little box in there, they deemed that too small and threw that down as well. A larger box seems to be ok and there they go, except when one of the roosters decides to try it out and then what a squawking and yelling. The hen stays in the cupboard too but fusses and fusses until he gets out. As the garage makes a good sounding board, you can hear them all through the house.

Friday I go up to the Paso Fino farm in Middleboro to inspect a free mare which has been sent to me on trial. She is 16, and is no longer being bred or ridden, so the owner is looking for a good home. Martha Tarradash is coming with me to give her opinion as to whether we will make a good match. As the mare will come down to Martha's farm its important that Martha like her. I am told that she is a dark bay and very cuddly. The only drawback is that she is considerably larger than Dueno. We shall see.

My plans for my trip to the Manu Reservation in April are all in place and this will be another great adventure. To get there we will descend through a cloud forest, a fairly rare phenomena - look it up on the internet if you want to know more. Peter Matthiessen's book on the subject wasn't much help - in fact I thought it was a waste of his time and mine.

My great grandaughter, Nia Elizabeth is home and doing well. Her father sends me wonderful digital pictures, so that although I don't expect to see her until July, I can keep track of her.

This Saturday I will be a docent in the R.I Wild Plant Society's wild garden display at our Providence flower show. Last year the garden was so like the woods at Topsfield that I was taken back through the years. I hope it will be more of the same this year as I have promised to spend four hours in it, identifying and protecting.

Love to all Caroline

arrivals

From: Caroline
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 1:29 PM
Subject: arrivals

well, I'll give this another shot - and hence forth I promise never to "copy" before I hit "send".

By far and away the most important arrival has been that of Nia Elizabeth Poor - my Great grandaughter. I am so joyous for her parents who have suffered so many sorrows. I just saw pictures of her at 12 hours old and she looks perfect. For those of you who are not close family members and who may not be quite as entranced as I am, I will not include them but if you want to see them, let me know and I will forward

While waiting for Nia I have also been waiting for a small female Golden Retriever who will come to me from the rescue group. I have been examined as a potential owner and passed the test, so now every time the phone rings I think I'm getting a call from the facility at Holliston(? ) saying "you can come and get her" . She will be small and I will call her Zoe. ( There is a reason for this floating around in the back of my head but I haven't taken the time to track it down yet).

The third arrival will be a Paso Fino 16 year old mare from Maryland. They will no longer be breeding her and as no one rides her they are looking for a good home. My friend Bob Yunits - from the farm where I learned to ride- found her and will keep her for a month while we check her out. She is free and of course the saying is "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" but we will be looking quite closely at hers, and if she doesn't suit, I can send her back again.

I'm not exactly living off the land, but I did have a grand breakfast of five bantam eggs the other morning. I think now that the dys are getting longer they are starting to lay, and I wish,hope, that they will lay in their newly installed nest boxes instead of scattering eggs in dark corners.

The number of shrubs blooming is astonishing -fragrant honeysuckle, autumn bllooming cherry with it pink flowers, Chinese witch hazel, pussy willows bursting their rose colored sheaths, and up in the wild garden my Christmas roses reward me with a look at their charming pink(orientalis) and white(niger - you'd think this meant black but you'd be wrong - must be some other part that is black)flowers. If I could only get over my hesitation in using Adobe Photo shop I might send you some pictures.

love to all Caroline