January Thaw

Happy January Thaw! At least in this part of the world. It's a balmy 57 degrees out! The forecast is for -5 Friday night, so I'll enjoy this while I can. Yesterday was sunny and bright, but I had plenty of work on my desk and only managed a brief walk from the parking lot to the office. Today however I dedicated an hour to prowling around the field across the road, just breathing deeply and pretending spring is around the corner.

My only company was a crow that circled a few times cawing loudly, I'm sure alerting everyone in the area to my presence, and some turkeys that were in the field across the river. I could barely see them, but could hear them loud and clear. There are so many flocks around, but I like to think that the ones that visited our feeder were over there, too.

I'm fortunate to be one of those people easily amused by nature. I can spend time watching a patch of grass hoping I'll see an insect passing through or staring into the woods trying to decide if I'm looking at a clever grouping of branches or an animal. I pick up rocks, rub my hands over moss, test prickly looking seed pods to see how sharp they are. Down by the river I felt like I could hang around for hours, listening to the ice creaking, the water bubbling under it, looking at tracks in the mud, and debating on whether to poke a stick into a suspicious looking hole (I didn't).

This morning one of my lady bugs visited while I was settling in to work, seems like a gentle nudge to pick up the pen soon...