Home Sweet Home

March 12, 2010

Being home is so peaceful. I wish I could teleport myself from Burlington back to Wantage so I could have a sit-spot near my house. Not that I don't like Burlington, but there's something about my home place that I connect to with such ease. All I hear is the snow melt running down to the stream, the rumblings of an occasional car or truck passing by, the animals in the barn, and the songs and calls of dozens of birds. There are the rude old blue jays, little flashes of red that I know are male cardinals in pursuit of a lady friend, three types of woodpeckers (who like to serve as my unwanted alarm clock), nuthatches, sparrows, crows, chickadees, a mockingbird and some hawks. I even saw a pair of blue birds the other day, contently sitting next to each other on a set of telephone lines soaking up the sunshine. If spring isn’t on its way here, nature is playing a cruel trick. There are definitely more tree buds here than back in Vermont, and judging by the sheer number of birds I would say that migrations are in full swing, and perhaps a little earlier than usual based on my blue bird sighting. There’s still quite a bit of snow on the ground, but wherever the snow is absent the ground ranges from brownish, spongy grass to squelching brown slime that sucks my rubber boots off. The changing of seasons seems right on schedule for this year, although the weather has definitely been fairly sporadic, leading to what seems to be confusion amongst the animals here. It's been sunny and in the high 40s to low 50s everyday this week, and my dad is ready to start seeding, the cows and sheep are anxious to be grazing on sweet green grass, and my brothers are ready to have longer days so they can be outside longer. I don't think it's quite spring time yet, but it is certainly on its way. There's that saying: March is in like a lion, out like a lamb. We'll see when the lamb-ness begins and then I'll decide if the seasons are normal here or not.