I thought we had escaped the grip of winter by now, but then, this morning, yuck!
March certainly came in like a lion here with a bitter cold wind and then a dump of snow. I’m counting on it to go out like a lamb, hopefully with mild springtime temperatures.
I did some digging and found out that some people think the proverb about March is not so much about weather as it is about the stars.
At the beginning of March, the constellation Leo rises in the eastern sky. Then at the end of March, the constellation Aries (the ram, or perhaps the lamb in its younger days) sets in the west.
Whether it is weather related or has to do with the stars, it’s often safe to assume the weather is better towards the end of March.
Just for fun, here is a timely Knock, Knock joke that you all know.
Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Marshall.
Marshall who?
Marshall come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.
About 100 ft. from my house stands a maple that has seen better days. The woodpeckers peck holes into the trunk, and it’s a wonder that the tree hasn’t lost more limbs in the recent windstorms.
Still, I love to see the woodpeckers, and I always have my camera handy for bird sightings. When I spotted this one on the maple this morning, I grabbed the camera and rushed out onto the deck to snap a photo. I closed the sliding door quietly.
“Please don’t fly away until I get a picture,” I whispered.
He didn’t fly away, so I snapped some more. Still he didn’t fly.
“This is great,” I thought. The squirrels were chattering noisily just then, and I assumed that the woodpecker hadn’t heard me tiptoeing out onto the deck.
But then I thought, “That’s strange. He should have flown by now. Or at least pecked at the bark. But he’s just sitting there. Maybe he’s sick.”
I brought the camera in and uploaded the photos onto the laptop. Then I could see the bird more clearly. I wasn’t sure what kind it was. Maybe not a pileated woodpecker, after all. He seemed to have morphed into something else.
A broken off branch surrounded by the maple’s tears?
… before the storm.
Photo by Pat G.
Evidence of winter damage can last for years in America’s prairie landscapes. Farmers did their best to put up strong buildings to withstand the elements in the days before modern building materials were available. Even so, the fierce storms often proved too much for the buildings. These roofs most likely had a huge dump of snow on them at one time. The weight crushed the roofs as it crushed the farmer’s will to rebuild. In the dry climate, with little rainfall and lots of heat, crops could easily fail, discouraging even those who would have wished to rebuild.
Many buildings were left to their fate in the lonely landscape.
Even in more modern times, nature was more powerful than man. I hope the family who lived here wasn’t in the trailer when it blew over. If they were, they would have been rocking and rolling.
The tenants in these houses have moved out long ago. Most likely they, or the people they sold to, live nearby.
Somebody has to feed the horses.
Even the horses are hiding behind the house to get out of the blazing sun or the howling wind.
And yet, it’s a beautiful place to visit. Just very hard to live there, because the weather always wins.
Screaming winds ripped through the fir trees when they were still laden with snow. The weight of the snow and the push of the wind was too much for some branches. It will take some sawing to make this branch manageable in pieces for the yard cleanup.
But all is not doom and gloom. See the black creature between the trunks of the trees? She’s having fun.
Here is closer look.
Sorry. All we can see is her hind end. The front part of her body, especially the nose and front paws, are busy investigating whatever smells so good inside that old tree stump. It will be bath night tonight … again!
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