Monday Meander - March 22, 2021

Hello Spring!

She has come bringing bright blue skies and so very welcome warmth. The snow is all but gone with just a few sad, dirty remnants of the heaps pushed aside by plows and shovels. The redpolls (above) took full advantage of the fine weather to tank up before they head north for the summer. It has been such a delight to see these red-capped rosy-breasted birds this winter. I will miss them when they go, but then the others will arrive. A robin crossed my path twice this past weekend.

  A single crocus came into bloom yesterday and there are plenty more on the way.

Tulips are pushing up through the mulch and winter debris, as is the rhubarb and the forsythia are sporting plump buds - all accompanied by the buzz of awakened wasps, houseflies and other insects.

These signs of reawakening life after a long winter lift my spirits out of the drab ho-hum and into the realm of happy anticipation. Like the tulips and crocus, my soul is pushing beyond the pandemic rubble to send up tender shoots of  new life. All the frustrations of a pandemic story that just doesn't want to end are shoved out of the way making room for better thoughts and better days to come. So come with me and let's swing into spring.

©2021 April Hoeller

Thursday, or Thereabouts - May 10, 2018

Spring - the 2018 edition

Spring has been having some trouble getting a foothold in these parts. Since the equinox on March 20, there have been some stellar days, days that have warmed our hearts and fertilized our garden dreams, followed by way too many days of chill and frost and ice pellets. While May has shown far more promise than her predecessor April, as I sit at my desk today, I'm reading of a few frost warnings for tonight. But fear not my friends, a sure sign of warmth and contentment, real heat and blazing light rolled onto our street yesterday morning and right up our driveway.

Yes indeed, the annual truckload of next winter's firewood arrived, all 5+ tons of it. With air brakes sighing, the familiar white truck rolled in from the highway, right on time.

John, from John's Firewood, has the routine down pat. In one fluid movement, he backs his rig in from the road, lines it up with the woodshed, then tips the bucket.

With a ground-shaking rumble three bush cords of split hardwood tumble out. He pulls the rig forward, gives the bucket a good thump or three to shake any last bits out and pulls back onto the driveway.

Job Done in under three minutes!

All that remains to be done is 20+ hours of stacking 384 cubic feet of firewood. Easy peasy - especially when compared to what my love and I used to do back in our "pioneer" days. Thirty-five or so years ago, in the land before children, full-length logs were dumped in front of the woodshed. We cut, split and stacked. There was even one summer (and only ONE!) when we helped clear a government woodlot. We felled the trees and hauled them out to the tractor, which then delivered them to be cut, split and stacked.

1985 with the first of our four-pawed children, Sheba.

2018

Well, there's little more than a month to get the stacking done before travel plans take over the timetable, and I do love making order out of chaos, so I'd best get out there.

The birds are singing, the hanging baskets are up and the firewood has been dumped.

Spring - the 2018 edition - has sprung!

©2018 April Hoeller