Vermont experienced two days this week with temperatures in the forties, an entire ten-plus degrees above freezing. During those two days, Vermont thawed a bit. Some of the snow melted (from feet down to inches) and the snow banks drew back. The snow melted entirely in some sunnier spots, revealing fields of discolored grass and bent corn stubble. It is now possible to see the ground in some places, and there are verges of mud on the edge of some roads. The cold has now returned and it’s been freezing for days, but those two days this past week were enough to start the tree sap running, and cause the buds on the smallest tree branches to swell a bit, though barely. Driving down the road, the willows and the maples have a visible reddish or yellow shimmer along their top-most branches, almost a mirage. Those small buds are just enough to create a slight change in the outline of a tree, a haze the promises the beginnings of a tree leaf canopy yet to come. I don’t know that anyone is sugaring yet; I haven’t spotted any steam or smoke from our neighbor’s sugar house. Continue reading “Spring Chickens & Vermont Thaw”
Tag: spring
Robin Tales
Yesterday, I had written that I was hoping for a hint of spring “crossing my fingers for a little bit of spring magic. Some greenery, a slant of light, maybe a bit of bird fluff” and today as I walked back to the office from my car, carrying some forced hyacinths tucked in a bag, a robin chirruped at me from the top of a three-foot snow bank. It’s a bit early for robins in Vermont (although some do overwinter here). I saw a flutter of feathers, the tilt of a head, and robin eyes focused in my direction, not even three feet in front of me, on top of a snow bank between street and sidewalk. I slowed my pace, the robin looking straight at me (well, as straight as it could with a tilted considering head). And then, a little hop or two on bird feet and it “chirruped” at me. I stopped completely, a bit uncertain at being so closely considered: avian scrutiny and at close proximity. And just like that, away and gone, while I followed with my eyes, across a roof and out of sight. Continue reading “Robin Tales”
BEAN & BANTAM 