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.