New Construction

So that census report I just sent back is already outdated; I think last year's robin couple has come back to stay with us again this year. It might be a different pair, but the new nest has been constructed in the exact same location on the same branch of the spruce. (I removed the old nest last year after it was abandoned.) It's currently empty, and not quite as impossibly-neat-looking as a robin nest usually is, though it's a tightly-woven little thing. No sign of the contractor.

On Pushing Through, and Coming Back

I didn't clear away the oak leaves last fall, but that didn't stop the tulips. All over the bed, they just keep unfurling, ever so slowly, and go not around the obstacle but straight through. The force is with them, the one that through the green fuse drives the flower.
(Oh look it up; you're in front of the internet anyway...)
The lizards have woken up and started to scamper, everything's coming up green, and crowds of robins are urging me to "cheer up! cheer up!" as they search for real estate to settle down on. I tell ya, it's like a Hallmark card at times.
Things have been quiet here since the end of the summer, when a spanner was thrown in the works, and I've spent the last six months being inspected, resected and injected. It's not quite over, but it will be soon, and trust me, when it is, we'll be getting back up to speed here. For what that's worth.
In the meantime, here's a snowdrop in the Clark Botanic Garden, on the first full day of spring.

How's My Hair?

The music of chainsaws fills the air every day now, and will for some time to come.
It was a week ago already, that mighty wind on Saturday. It took down half a dozen 30- to 40-foot evergreens around the block, but spared us any harm. A gigantic branch from a neighbor's tree broke off and fell onto our garage roof, but remained supported by a lower limb, so the roof was undamaged. Our good ol' brother-in-law Newman came over with a power tool; he and Ken climbed onto the garage roof, and I stayed inside and kept them from falling off by concentrating very, very hard. I did not take pictures of that. We did lose a piece of downspout,(I think) and/or a length of leader pipe from the gutters. Something unexciting like that.
Elsewhere, just across the street and down the block, there was much more damage:







I think contractors and landscapers will have a very good season this year.

Pointless

The March March March has been undertaken undertaken (almost) every year since 1979, by people in the town of March, in Cambridgeshire, for no reason other than to refer to it as the March March March.

Recommended For You

For a good time, visit That Is Priceless, because I promise you, you will laugh.

Winter Arrives With A "Whumpf!"

There'll be no more basking in unseasonable warmth; Gaia decided to throw on a thick ermine shawl to celebrate the winter solstice, which occurs tomorrow at 12:47 p.m. EST. We got about six or seven inches of snow.
Kenny immediately set to work on the first order of business: digging his way to Fiona and refreshing her frozen water dish. Is he the best or what?

Spruce Basking: Now With Video!

Yes, more lizards, you thought you'd heard the last about them for a while, but no, they are still up and around every sunny day between 10:30 and noon, even now it's December.  Here's one guy who let me follow him for a minute (until I lost my balance.) They climb up the dwarf Alberta spruce and take in the southern exposure for a couple of hours. I don't know how they can stand scurrying around on those needles, which are quite prickly, at least to my unwebbed fingers.