Spring Comes To Cherry Pond

I had been adding new material to my original Cherry Pond post, but decided to bring the new material up to this new post.

The pond greeted us on the first day of spring with a frosting surprise.

I briefly thought of joining this year's class action suit against that fraudulent expert witness Punxsutawney Phil, who appears to have pulled a fast one on us this year. However, most snow melted by sundown, so we'll let Phil off the hook once again.

Also that night, the snow seemed to bring a newcomer to the pond area, the first owl I've heard since moving here. It was an 8-hoot owl (say 'who cooks for you' twice, with slight emphasis on you), also known as a Barred Owl, an eastern newcomer to the area that is becoming a threat to our native Northern Spotted Owl. He was quite vocal between 11PM and midnight, and I fell asleep to repeated calls every 30 seconds or so. But apparently, no female answered, so his was a one night concert.

An April surprise brought a Canada Goose to the railing of our deck, remaining there for at least 15 minutes and allowing me to open the door ten feet away and take photos. I thanked the goose, and it flew off to answer the call of some geese at the other end of the pond.

The goose had attracted my attention via a repeated knocking noise, waking me and beckoning me to get out of bed and answer the back door. I truly am a fully rational being, but a primal, shadowy thought, from seemingly nowhere, flitted across my consciousness: what spirit associated with this location might have returned to visit in the shape of a goose? I can easily imagine how my prehistoric Germanic ancestors were motivated to devote considerable spiritual energy toward such augury, often involving birds. Will such workings of the human brain ever be fathomed? Omen, omen, speak to me; should I play the lottery?

A further surprise came that evening, when the Barred Owl's return was noted, even closer than before, so that Debby could hear it also.

Winter

We had snow first in mid-November and next in mid-January.


Ben was able to attend Debby's medicare b'day celebration, which we combined with a Chanukah dinner for the local family. The next day, we went down to have lunch with Stef and the twins at Boom Noodle. Then Stef drove Ben to the airport for his return.


In tune with other holiday happenings, we host a gift opening on Dec 25th by our yule tree. Nate got a large train set and Emi got a treasure chest filled with costumes for fairy tale characters. Yours truly kept the home fires stoked.


We had several days of snow in mid-January that dumped ~10 inches on us. The trash guys failed to show up one day; the mailman failed to show on another day. People were hardier when I was young. On the other hand, bad snow is a rarity here, so no great inconvenience from missing an occasional day.

I am determined not to buy snow tires or a snow shovel. I'm a gut-it-out kind of person :-) This is our third winter here and so far so good. I use an inverted metal leaf rake to shovel the snow from the walk and drive. Works great. And the Audi's Quattro AWD works fine with M+S-rated all-weather tires. But we are keeping our eyes open for an AWD baby SUV for Debby, so she can drive herself when the roads are bad.

Owen visited us and caught the beginnings of our current storm. We had Dori and family over for a Saturday night spaghetti feast. On Sunday, Owen enjoyed tromping through the snow before we visited Pike Place Market. The kippered (dry smoked) sockeye salmon from the market is delicious. It was a slow day there, so they even threw our small bag of smoked salmon with loud ceremony, to make a little show for the few patrons in the area. We dined at a wine bar called Purple before getting Owen back to the airport.


Our back yard assumes a special aura when the snow falls:


And meanwhile, creative energy was being expended in a backyard nearby. Gotta love those eye lashes.


As the snow piled on, we couldn't resist going out and frolicking - well as close to frolic as we come these days.


The final word on snowmen was captured via iPhone out the car window just down the block from us.


While walking my usual running route through the neighborhood, this wintery scene handily popped onto my iPhone.

Second Snowfall

We awoke to almost 3" of wet snow. It will only last the day, but it made the yard look special. I used a metal garden rake to shovel the snow off the walks. The city had the street plowed by 11AM.


Front of house:

House across street:

Across the breakfast room patio:

Park across street:

Note these pictures were taken with a 12mm lens, giving a distorted spaciousness to the scenes.