It’s the end of January and the weather is very strange. The last week has been especially strange; first, we had five inches of snow, heavy, wet snow.
I feel sorry for the wild critters who live on the homestead. We keep the bird feeders full, and I make sure I put out carrots for the rabbits who come around every evening. There were 16 male and female cardinals by one feeder. The red males looked so beautiful against the white snow!
I enjoy seeing critter tracks in the snow. I have a book that helps me identify different prints. We have a lot of rabbits – despite the large coyote population – raccoons, possums, squirrels (red, gray, black and fox squirrels), plus the occasional barn cat that comes through the back pasture. Last year, I spotted a bobcat hiding in the trees but I haven’t seen it this year.
After the heavy snow, we had a couple of beautiful sunny days. It was cold and the snow looked like it had little diamond chips glistening.
Then it got a little warmer. It was warm enough, in the upper 30s, to make me long for spring even more than I did a couple of weeks ago!
Even Samson and Delilah were in a frisky mood, playing with their “toys” and being more active in their stalls.
I have a bad case of cabin fever, but I’m sure they have a bad case of “stall fever”! They are so fuzzy, I’m sure they’re ready to lose all that hair and have a good run in the pasture.
Today is a totally different story weather-wise. After a cold day yesterday, the wind started howling and the temperatures started rising over night. Not a good thing ….
Now, the freezing rain is pelting the windows. The windows to the south are totally frozen.
The only thing that reminds me that spring will eventually arrive is the geranium that is blooming in the window! This is the first time I’ve brought one in the house and it actually lived and bloomed!
My grandfather was a wonderful gardener, both vegetables and flowers, and always brought a few geraniums inside before the first frost. He would line the window sills in the closed-in, heated porch and gently take care of them. They would bloom all winter and then he would trim them down and put them back outside for the summer. He grew African Violets and their little pots sat on the window sills also. The porch was a favorite place to sit and read a good book during the winter … a fond memory.
