Spring Peepers

The frog chorus, a cacophony of white noice in tiny frog voices, sings from the slough behind the house. Said slough had a duck parade yesterday, the first time I've seen ducks on the water, which is usually a turbid mucky affair, but due to spring runoff is now flowing and fresh. The spring peepers really make a racket, but a nice one.

Every day or so now, I make an inspection tour of the yard. Casualties (suspected) from the winter: the bleeding heart that I've been growing for years hasn't popped out of the ground. My mother's variegated leaf iris is also among the missing, as are the dwarf iris. I knew last summer that I had planted the iris in a too wet spot where the sprinkler comes on all the time. So sad to lose my mother's plant. I carried it from Illinois to Boston and it survived all but this move. One does get attached to plants, somehow. The wild ginger made it thru the winter. Not sure about the red lily. It might be too early to mourn some of the missing. I have a Christmas cactus that my mother-in-law gave me when we moved into our first house. It did not like the move here, but finally, this Christmas, grudgingly produced one bloom, and then a plethora or red blossoms. The jade plant that I grew from a one leaf cutting also barely survived the move to this house, but is strong and healthy again. I have to confess that I do talk to them.

At work , my windowsill is full of inherited plants from people who left. I look must like a person who will take your plants, water them and love them. A sad cactus I inherited a year ago has produced an usual bloom out of a big long shoot that appeared out of the center. Like when my sansevaria bloomed in our dark library out of the blue one season.

We have wrens, cardinals, crows building a nest, lots of robins and a peewee. The birds of winter are less active, either gone or nesting already. It's been warm this week and walking is a pleasure instead of a painful duty. The cows galloped toward me, mooing and bleating today. They know I have treats. Lots of parsley and a wonderfully big orange peel. They have green grass now, but still enjoy a treat. It's really cool to have five cows come running to see me.