Maine has enough snow now to make the 'boards, 'bilers* and skiers happy so in my world, enough is enough! I would be happy in my old age to have enough cold days to preserve what they need, and enough warmth to melt my driveway and lower my heating needs. There are snowcaps on the fencepost tops, on the cones that cover the rose bushes and on St. Francis head. The mounds from shoveling and plowing have been freshly covered with new snow. And the Presidential Range of mountains, visible from the high points in the area, as glistening with a snowcap which will last until summer. A trip to the Western Promenade is well worth the gas and time when the weather is clear.
When I woke this morning there were scattered flakes drifting down, but within an hour they had become sparse and the sun was taking care of the few that had landed on the patio. I waited a bit to put Nick out. He was lethargic and apparently didn't have an urgent need so the two of us just took it easy for a couple of hours. Nick has not been feeling well. Too much holiday activity, I think, He was petted and played with and all that wiggling apparently set off the arthritis in his back and neck so that even bending down to eat was painful. He is stubbornly difficult to medicate, so I have been concocting hamburg, olive oil, spices and a little honey in a skillet, pounding his pill to a fine powder, and mixing it in. Poured over a portion of his dry food has him fooled for the time being. If he catches on to that ploy I have no more tricks in my apron pocket. He found the pill in the peanut butter on bread tidbits and now he won't touch peanut butter anything. He found it in a hamburg patty and spit it on the floor, much to the amusement of a visitor who has as dog that is very compliant about medication.
Anyway, all the places along the roads where I enjoy seeing the water running out of little crevices now have icicles. They are pretty. I dare not pull to the side of the road to take a picture. They are always in narrow or busy areas like turnpike ramps where the state cut through the glacial rocks to make way for men too busy to bother to go around natural obstacles like rock ledges. The watershed by the Scarborough exit - which had a beaver house a couple of years ago - is frozen over. The beaver houses were removed after some do-gooder busy-bodies reported them to the state wild life people.
They said it was a safety issue. I'm not sure if they were protecting the beavers or the people.
The turkeys, all 21 of them, were crossing the street by the entrance sign. Several were on the right, more on the left, but in the middle of the road were three having an argument about which way to go.
I stopped (I don't mind and I don't blow my horn because it confuses them even more) and another car stopped behind me. We spent about three minutes when car #2 blew it's horn and just as I expected, some went one way, some the other and some that had already crossed changed their minds to recross.
If you look at a turkey from the neck down, they are really beautiful with a lot of irridescent colors in their plumage. But if you look at them from the neck up, well, not exactly ugly, but certainly not pretty. Like ladies with beautiful clothes and plain to homely faces. But those Tom's, they look at the beautiful feathers and not the faces. Which is nature's way of ensuring the population.
Our deer also cross the road with abandon. I am really afraid for them, and the unlucky driver who at dusk can't quite discern their dun colored coats until it's too late. There seem to be three does in the herd unless I am seeing different groups. Maybe we'll get a look a handsome stag one of these evenings. Incidentally, Nick challenges the turkeys, but he has little to say when the deer go through. He just stretches his body out to get a better look, no threatening bark, not even a little woof. They are after all, much bigger than he is.
January is already a week old and I am no longer thinking about any resolutions that might have passed through my conscience. That's a little ahead of schedule actually, as I usually make it to MLK day at least. I did begin a "feel good" routine I heard about on one of TV's PBS programs: you can change your negative feelings by taking 45 seconds each morning to "appreciate" some thing - not the usual things but something that you might overlook in your ordinary thankfulness. So today I am thankful that my computer is behaving and my shower has clean warm water of which I am about to take advantage.
janice.major@iCloud.com
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