Whitetail Deer, two poses.

The past couple of weeks has been hard. I haven't been out to do much except for a day hike with a dear friend.

 Yes, the white stuff around her is snow. After having temps in the 70's (21C thereabouts) we have dropped back to normal (whateverthehellthatis) weather. We've had 2 inches the other night, which melted and then a quick dusting,last night.
She was one of three that stopped by to clean out a bird feeder, and also another reason for a fence around the garden.

Northern Lights

Last night, I put my book down, turned the light off and looked out the window. What usually was a dark sky over Spotted Mt., was lit up. I watched for a while and then it hit me. Northern Lights! I debated very briefly about getting a picture, then grabbed my camera and a small tripod.  Laying on my bed I quickly composed the shot and let the shutter go.

While I have seen more bright  lights, I'm not complaining. We don't get to see them as much as I would like, and usually when I hear there is a likely display, we have clouds.

April 1

I've been using Google Docs to keep track of what's going on in my part of the world.

Here's today's entry:

April 1- Song sparrow,chipping sparrow. First slug sighted. It feels like spring, warm last night (above freezing)(not the first), robins calling. Afternoon: mourning cloak, and one small unidentified butterfly.

Winter's return.

We had spring, it sprung and winter is back. The pull and push of the seasons, You go to bed saying how nice it is to be in spring, and upon waking, you see winter came back.

Last day of winter

The calendar says this is the last full day of winter, but a look out the window says winter. Still mostly snow covered, but mud is surging upwards. At least that's how it feels.

I spent yesterday morning out on a road that I spend a lot of time during our snow free months. Patches of mud were in the road, ponds are still frozen and the Kennebago River is still ice covered. But spring still is slipping in. Purple finches, brown creepers and the chickadees were singing wildly. Woodpeckers were drumming. I know the conifers and aspens are photosynthesizing, the sap is running. Spring is overtaking winter.

And it is so quiet. Water is babbling, but the snowmachines are silent.

Soon I'll get out more and note the comings of the birds. I still have Bigelow to look forward to and counting Bicknell's Thrush. Acadia? Baxter? Baxter most definitely. I can't wait. So much to do and to look forward to, but not nearly enough time.

Odd collection

I've been enjoying some very nice late winter sunshine, and thought I would share these with you. As you can see, we have mud!

Snow!

This February had been fairly dry. In the mountains, we did have a few snowy days, but it was the kind where it would snow, but wouldn't accumulate. The end of January gave us a rainstorm, which had cut our snowpack by half. That ended last week. It's still snowing. Higher up in the mountains, they got a couple of feet, down closer to town, we got about a foot .

There is a certain beauty about a New England winter. You suffer through some hard times and you get rewarded with magic.