Realities of Spring

Daydreams of a spring garden have given way to a touch of melancholy as late winter storms absolutely pummel our region. Last week storm days cancelled three days of school (didn't matter much as my son was home with a rotten cold anyway!!). It's rained record amounts for the last couple of days, giving me the chance to discover that the cellar drain is clogged - nothing like wading in a foot of water to make one nostalgic for the city apartment with a super on call. As I write, the portable sump pump installed by my handyman dad, bless him, is roaring away. It sounds as if a 747 is about to take off from below, but oh, am I thankful for it. Given that our pump and hot water heater would be afloat by now, it's a relief to hear it roar while the rain lashes at the windows. Great clouds of fog are being tossed around in the southerly winds, and the trees are swaying like palms in a hurricane. A truly wild day.

I'm keeping fingers crossed for a clear night on Wednesday, as a lunar eclipse is due - it's to begin around 9:45 p.m., so I hope to get a good look without having to stay up too late. By nature I'm a night owl, but the need to get up for the school bus at 6:30 a.m. curbs any inclination to burn the midnight oil much.

My son's been reading and enjoying the somewhat controversial Dark Materials series, but he disagrees with recommending it for younger children, says it's too complex and not that easy to read.

We recently viewed the highly acclaimed film about Che Guevara as a young man, "The Motorcycle Diaries" - beautiful cinematography as they travelled across Argentina, Peru and Colombia - rafting on a misty Amazon river, looking over Machu Picchu - lovely. His critique was favourable in its own way, "It was just like a documentary, only interesting." Ahhh, well.

The birds (and squirrels) have made amazing inroads into what I thought was an enormous sack of sunflower seeds, and at first chance I have to stock up again. Mostly the chickadees and nuthatches are around just now, though I did see a female pileated woodpecker yesterday. In a novel I read recently the bird was called the Lord God Bird in Georgia. I wonder if that's true. It's a very large and showy bird with the flashy red crest, and loud too. Here's hoping spring really is just around the corner, February is the longest short month in the year.