Is this a good sign or a bad sign?

This morning, as I left for work, I saw open water in the wetlands behind our house. Six waterfowl were taking a swim.

Now, should I be happy that it's warm enough to thaw open water and provide sanctuary for waterfowl, or concerned that I've lost it, because no one should be this excited over two Canada Geese and four Mallards?

Opposites Attract?

One of the hottest topics in pop and new age culture right now is "The Secret." If, like me, you haven't read it, here's the short course In case you still don’t know “The Secret”… » Massage, Mind & Body and here's the equal time link Shaking Riches Out of the Cosmos.

So, now that we're all on the same page, tell me: why is there snow, sleet, and ice outside my window? I've been very, very thankful for warmer weather, water not ice on the roads, migrating geese overhead, the promise of blackbirds returning before the end of the month, and the days the sun has shined this week. I've believed, based on my former life in Virginia and on blog reports from my southerly neighbors, that spring is imminent. I didn't even think about the weather reports yesterday, because I was so happy that it was going to be bright, warm, and sunny.

Nonetheless, I awoke to the tap, tap, tap of little icicles on the window panes, nearly fell on the ice as I was going to get the paper, and thought I'd lost my glasses the first time I looked through the ice coated window into a very blurry back yard. Half an hour ago, I was watching and listening to the second round of ice taps on the windows. Right now, it's snowing: big, wet, messy snowflakes are plopping on the ground and deck, on top of the ice, just to make walking and driving that much more fun.

Someone may have a secret, but not me.

Spring! Spring!

The bird is on the wing!
My word - absurd!
The wing is on the bird.

What is it about spring that brings out our deep-rooted silliness? Joy that winter is leaving us? Physiological response to more hours of sunlight? Elevated temperatures overheating our still-frozen brains?

I don't know, but I'm rejoicing in each and every sign that spring is approaching. This morning I heard a Phoebe - I'm not great on IDing birds calls, but that one's pretty unmistakable - so the migrants are returning. Seconded by the multiple flocks geese flying overhead, the sunlight still visible at 7pm, and the second day of greater than 40 degree temperatures. Not only are there mud puddles, there are vast clear swaths of street, sidewalk, and driveway, and even a few bare patches of lawn.

Maybe the red-winged blackbirds aren't all that far behind!

Weather or not

My Virginia friends profess to believe that Michigan is synonymous with the North Pole, or at least with Minnesota. This has led to summer conversations such as

Friend From Virginia: What did you do yesterday?
Me: Sat out on the deck and watched the birds
FFV: Weren't you cold?
Me: It was 80 degrees!

Of course, the Michiganders aren't much better. They spent all summer and spring telling me how miserable I was going to be come winter, the first half of winter assuring me that it was inordinately mild for this time of year, and the time since the cold snap started telling me that it used to be much colder, for much longer, and with lots more snow and ice. I think they were trying to scare me back to Virginia.

Now, I don't want to challenge the native self image of toughness, but I've seen five inches of snow before, and I had a heating element for my bird bath in Virginia for a reason. Yes, on average it's colder here, and the snow hangs around a little longer. But neither penguins nor polar bears have paraded through my yard.

Despite the icicles, I can already see signs of spring. The trees in the front yard have buds (heh, they're Bradford Pears, the golden retrievers of the plant world; what do you expect?) . The days have been getting steadily longer and lighter, and started doing so almost immediately after the equinox. The geese have been flocking northward in ever increasing numbers, and the goldfinches are ever-so-slightly brighter yellow.

I've read that the red-winged blackbirds will return in February. That seems awfully early to me, but I've been watching carefully for any signs of them. The cedar waxwings, the herons, the blue birds... so much to look forward to.

Should Auld Acquaintance ...

One of the nice things about returning to blogging after a year and a half absence was finding that several of the blogs I read regularly are still alive and thriving. I'm still catching up on what I've missed, but it's nice to see Niches and The Taming of the BandAid still thriving.

Sometimes it seems like there are many, many fellow travelers on the native-plant, backyard-habitat bandwagon, but that's only because likes attract. In "real life" most of the people I meet or talk gardening with are lawn-crazy, irrigation-system loving, tropical-plant cultivating folks who just don't get native plants and think wildlife habitats should be banned from suburban neighborhoods. The other night I was chatting with a new acquaintance at a party, and almost fell off my chair when I asked about her gardening and she replied that she was mostly interested in native plants and reducing the amount of lawn around her house. Eureka!

A magical, three-part story

Close encounters of the butterfly kind:

Burning Silo » Blog Archive » houston, we have a problem
Burning Silo » Blog Archive » feeding a butterfly
Burning Silo » Blog Archive » he or she?

I'm truly touched that she gladly goes to the trouble to nuture and sustain this beautiful creature.

There's something wrong with this picture

From The Firefly Forest

Cacti. Snow. In the same picture(s).

Depressing ...

The Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been released. For those you who don't want to read the whole thing, the New York Times article "Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’" is a good summary. You may also want to check the other NYT resources on the global warming and Wayne's comments at Niches.

I am depressed, not so much because we humans are having an adverse effect on the planet but because of a stubborn refusal by the current administration to face facts that are inconvenient. Mistakes can be fixed and damage reversed (albeit very slowly in this case) but only once accepting that there's a problem and a responsibility to help solve it. Refusing to participate in the Kyoto Protocol and pressuring scientists to change their findings may win political points and campaign donations, but it won't prevent a world without penguins and polar bears.