Early Spring Beauty Surrounds Us

At twilight tonight, I came upstairs and looked out the windows onto a blue sky streaked with pink clouds with the entire scene reflected in the lake. I walked a few feet on into the kitchen to fix a hamburger for Gerald’s and my supper, and the reflection had already disappeared. Very soon the windows showed only the evening darkness, but I can still see that first lovely view in my head. There is so much spring beauty all around us this year that it is difficult to believe that winter may be over.

I have kept thinking we might have a March blizzard as we have some years in the past. Instead we had the tornado on the last day of February, which was much worse than a blizzard, but it only affected a minority of our population, which really does seem totally unfair.

I picked a lovely bouquet of daffodils by the roadside Monday for the women coming to our house that night to enjoy. We have some double daffodils and some paper whites that Gerald found back where the original Blumingstock house once was, but I have a strong preference for the dainty daffodil with the pretty delicate trumpet shape in the middle.

Although they were not yet ready to scent our living room on Monday night, the hyacinths Gerald planted are really strutting their stuff now. I need to bring a bloom or two inside since the daffodilm bouquet had to be thrown away today.

Bradford and Cleveland pear trees are abloom all over the region, and our redbud at the edge of the lawn is turning pinkish purple now. I told Gerald I wanted to see the Bradford pear trees on the opposite side of the tiny island he created in our lake, and so I was invited to join him and Jake for a ride around the farm in the Gator.

Several of our fields are still blackened from the recent burning required by the government program they are a part of. But already the cool season grasses are coming up green, and soon the warm season plants will join them for a healthy green cover once more. We found daffodils and paper whites on far fields across the road where a homestead used to be, and Gerald jumped off the Gator and dug up two clumps of the paper whites from the many there. He will add them to the bed where the rose bushes and hyacinths are.

The prettiest sight on that trip was a field our friend Bruce Beasley had told us about on Facebook. A large neighboring field was completely blue with thousands of small grape hyacinths. I had never seen that sight before and it was breath taking.

Gerald is still feeding the birds in the feeders on our deck even though it is totally unnecessary in this warm weather. We get a great deal of pleasure watching the colorful cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, brown headed cowbirds, red winged blackbirds, juncos, chickadees, sparrows, and some we cannot identify.

We used to have flocks of cardinals in our side yard at our other house, and during the ten years we have lived here we have missed them. Bruce, who lives in that same neighborhood, wrote about them this year. We have had so few that we’d get excited about a rare single one that might show up on our deck. Imagine our delight after Bruce wrote about them to suddenly have a small flock show up at Woodsong. They light in the redbud and fly back and forth to the feeder making our feeder the most colorful it has ever been.

The kids in our school systems have been on spring break this week, and David took Sam on a jazz trip to Memphis and New Orleans. So I have visited with Katherine a little more than usual while they’ve been gone. For weeks I have enjoyed the early crocus beside her front walk. Then more recently her tiny miniature daffodils started blooming, and they are a sweet delight. (I have never seen these any place else.) Now her lovely larger daffodils are blooming too. She has had several appointments this week, so she has been able to enjoy them also as she has been out and about.

Ready or Not, January Is Over and February Is Here

The lake is green-tinted blackish now and completely thawed after the previous few days of melting swirls of silver ice still lingering there. A flock of wild ducks came in on Sunday and a few were still swimming there when I looked out our bedroom window this morning. There are no longer any small spots of snow left over in shady places; all is brown. We had an absolutely beautiful warm final January weekend here in Southern Illinois.

But like much of the nation, we are threatened with the possibility of blizzard-like conditions tomorrow. So the landscape may turn white again. Gerald has an appointment with his truck early in the morning. I’m supposed to take Sam to the orthodontist before lunch, and Katherine has an appointment for a Tysabri infusion in the afternoon. We’ll see whether the weather permits us to keep our appointments.

Although we had seen several cardinals, a blue jay, and a woodpecker back when the snow was on, I was again seeing only the small birds at the feeder that Gerald keeps on the deck. Today, however, I saw one bright red cardinal, the blue jay, and another big black and brown bird I did not recognize. I had to wonder if they knew they better fill up in case the blizzard comes. When they left, the six little sparrows, who had been waiting, had their breakfast. The prettiest sight was when I went downstairs to the computer and saw a pair of doves on the lawn enjoying the grain that had dropped down from the deck above them.

On Saturday mid-morning, Gerald came in from his shop that he has been busy reorganizing. He had worked too many hours on the concrete the day before, and was ready to let that project go for awhile. I had started several things—bed stripped, laundry going, meat thawing for lunch, but I was still relaxing at the breakfast table in my pajamas slowly reading the morning’s paper. He needed to go to Carbondale to an office supply store and to Lowe’s to get some dowel rods he can only get there and asked if I’d want to go, and if so, how soon could I be ready?

With that challenge, I quickly stuck the thawing meat in the fridge for Sunday, jumped into some clothes, and collected the Christmas gift card for the J.C. Penney card that I needed to spend and I was ready in record time. Never mind that I’d have to finish the bed with clean sheets and fold the laundry when I got back. I had left my purse at Katherine’s accidently on Thursday, so we met up there, and I climbed into the truck.

We took the long way to Carbondale so he could show me where Erin is living in Cambria even though we thought she would already be at softball practice. In my rush to the truck, I forgot my coat in the car, but was glad I did since I really did not need it. We saw children playing outside in shirt sleeves as we drove through Cambria. We took some unfamiliar back roads to reach Carbondale where we stopped for lunch before Gerald dropped me off to shop while he did his errands.

I couldn’t resist the sale racks, but I can’t stand anything with a high neckline and so all the turtle neck stuff was passed over, some colors were wrong for me, and some of the other garments had much too low necklines when I tried them on after I finally was able to find a dressing room. It has been years since I had been to that particular store, and I was totally surprised at how I kept finding new rooms with these sales going on. I think I was going in a circle. I felt confused and disoriented and even though I was not buying jewelry, I tried to keep aware of where the jewelry department was just so I felt a little less lost.

I had my arms full of a second batch of clothes to try on if I could only find a dressing room again, when Gerald phoned to say he was done and how was I doing. I was relieved when he said he would come on inside and visit the men’s department. So I finished before he did and sat resting in the mall lounge outside the store. By then I really needed that rest.

Gerald came out a few minutes later with two new pair of trousers that were on sale. I had bought three items during all his errand completion at other stores. Obviously he is a more efficient shopper than I am. I really had intended to go to the household/kitchen department but hadn’t found it until I wandered there by mistake with the last load of clothes over my arm looking for that dressing room. All three garments that I bought were on sale for $4.98, so I still have most of my gift card left to spend later! That was fun. Next time maybe I will find the right department to begin with.

February Weather

While the TV announcers exclaim with news and pictures of the blizzard in the East, I look out our many lakeside windows and can see only variegated brown ground cover with white snow stripes despite this week’s two snowfalls. Our school kids here in Williamson County, who were hoping for a snow day, were disappointed when the 3-7 inch prediction fell short and the roads stayed in good shape thanks to the highway department. President’s Day on Monday is going to be welcome to weary students wanting a break.

During an earlier snowfall, I saw a couple very tiny snowmen in a couple of yards, but I’ve seen no forts or evidence that the kids have been able to enjoy a good wet snow here in our part of the Midwest. I’m sorry for the kids about that lack and also sorry for the destructive record breaking snows in the East. For myself, despite enjoying the beauty of snow and always liking being snowed-in, I am grateful for anything that saves our local road budgets snow removal costs.

It is soup and chili weather, and that is what our church sent over to the International Luncheon for students at Southern Illinois University yesterday. I didn’t go because of an annual doctor check-up, and I did not help because everything was already planned by the time I volunteered.

Charlene Morris, who has made this luncheon her special project for several years, was having knee surgery. Consequently, she and others were highly organized and early on cooked all the meat for freezing so that after the surgery Charlene would only be putting it together for the soup. Charlene not only made soup but went along with her husband Gerald to deliver it. She was tired of being house bound. I am wondering how they transported that huge amount of soup. Jo Barger, one of the area’s best cooks, made the all-vegetable soup for those who didn’t eat meat. It took a lot of will power on her part to refrain from seasoning those veggies with a bit of beef. I am sure if Jo made it, the soup was good, and the reports at the village church tonight was that menu hit the spot with chilled students.

I made a favorite pork chop recipe today for our noon meal. Years ago the late Marguerite Lashley, a school librarian and New Dennison neighbor, shared her favorite way to fix chops as we rode to a club meeting together. She had gotten the simple directions from a chef at a New Orleans restaurant. Back then over at Pondside Farm, Gerald was raising hogs, and I collected pork chop recipes. (Fried pork chops with milk gravy is superb, but we needed variety, and I rarely fried foods even back then and certainly don’t now in our senior years.)

So today after flouring, seasoning, and browning the chops—I use olive oil—I peeled potatoes and sliced them and sliced large white onions to add on top of the chops. The layers of onions and potatoes were also seasoned with salt and pepper. Then I covered it all with water. This takes a big skillet. Then starting on a high burner and later turning down to low, I cooked until everything was tender. The kitchen smells are wonderful by the time this meal is ready to serve. I had five very large chops, so I was able to take the meal to Katherine’s family for their supper to make their house smell good on a winter day.

Even though the fields around our lake are rich with native grasses providing food for birds and small beasts, the snow makes the seeds a little harder and less pleasant to retrieve, and the birds flock to the feeder on the deck. We’ve had chickadees and juncos, sparrows, jays, cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a downy woodpecker, and some birds I don’t know. The starlings also come and are not as welcome because they drive off the smaller birds. I heard Gerald muttering the other day as he watched, “I guess God created the starlings too.” He was trying to be sympathetic to their hunger, but they certainly aren’t pretty and their manners aren’t the best. But they are hungry this cold weather, and I am sure they are grateful for the bounty Gerald supplies.

Winter's Come

Although we received two or three inches of the three to five predicted, after Thursday most of the highways were cleared. Cars in the ditch were common on Thursday, and some had to wait for wreckers not just because the wrecker was tied up helping someone else but also Interstate 57 was considered too slick for it to be safe to have a wrecker pulling someone onto the road. But eventually most people got to work and back home again, and wreckers helped those that didn’t.

Some of our county schools were closed Thursday and some were not. More were closed on Friday although the roads were better than the day before. Many times when roads are safe in town, they may be impassable on rural roads. I know that my brother used to get up at 4 a.m. and drive the country roads in his district in central Illinois trying to determine if the school buses could safely make their pick-ups. I feel sorry for those having to make those decisions that could be life-ending for children if made wrong. That is a terrible responsibility. Whatever decision is made, some folks will feel it is the wrong decision. If parents have to go to work and children are home alone, accidents can happen at home. Generally at least the kids are happy when school is cancelled. My grandkids are. As a parent, I used to love snow days even if it did mean I spent the day bundling kids up, drying out gloves and socks, finding more gloves and socks while the first ones dried.

Now when the weather cancels my plans for the day, I can lazily snuggle in watching the birds at the feeder on the deck and feel no compunction to adopt new plans. We’ve especially enjoyed seeing a pair of cardinals there since we do not see them often at this house. I was really delighted when one flew to the ledge of our living room where I was reading. He was staring in trying to figure out what goes on inside that place he could not enter. I had this strong desire to be able to talk to him and find out what he was thinking. Such days seem special simply because I suddenly realize that my plans weren’t as important as I thought. Nature is humbling that way.

Gerald had been out every day, but I tagged along yesterday to meet Leslie, our granddaughter returning to Belmont for spring semester. We met at Cracker Barrel for lunch and used one of our gift cards (with 19 cents left over) to feed us. She headed on down to Nashville to be on hand as a resident assistant in her dorm when the students began coming back today. We headed to the warehouse store for me to look for a seasoned port loin roast for dinner guests today. And we had to stop at Rural King for more bird feed and suet.

Today we were able to drive without problems to church, where a young man in the village had cleared the parking lot for us. The house was crowded. I think folks were glad to be out and about again. But I’ve heard more than one say they are ready for spring. It is going to take awhile. Yet as the poet promised, it can’t be far behind.