Long winter - welcome spring

It seemed winter would never move along so Spring could settle in, but in the last few weeks great mounds of snow at the edges of parking lots and on the edges of the roads in the country (away from the coast is "country) have melted away.   As usual the sand from road care was left behind along the edges of the roads, and the sweepers which creep along picking it up scatter nearly as much dust as they gather.   Not to mention the traffic tie-ups they cause crawling along at 5 miles per hour.  Anyway, the ducks are back in the pond; Mrs. in her best brown feathered dress and he in his fancy full colored tux.   They paddle around in the pond, occasionally going under, and he waddle up the bank and cross the road for a daily constitutional.  That worries me.  I don't know why they cross the road when their pond is so safe and handy.  

The turkeys, which entertained us all winter coming for their daily ration of corn and seeds, have now withdrawn into the trees to sit on their eggs.   The Toms are no longer waking us at day break.   All winter there was one very small hen who never quite fit in the flock. She often laid in the sun while the others pecked around.   Now she is the only one I ever see, all by herself.    The deer came regularly and decimated a lot of the trees and shrubs.   I was hoping they would really eat more of the tree behind my house as I think it needs to be taken out anyway.   Well, maybe we need to keep it so she will have something to munch on next year.

The fountains are back in the pond.    The marshes are full with tidal excess and the grasses flooded with water and populated with tall white egrets and occasional great blue herons, short legged herons and geese, are changing to that beautiful gold that reflects the sun and comes just before they get green with summer heat.   I remember when farmers used to ted that marsh grass for fodder.   No one bothers now to do that.   So it lays flat in the fall, and becomes the soil, eventually, for more of the same.

It is beautiful and I am grateful for another spring to enjoy it.

jmajor@maine.rr.com